Best Practices for Improving Fiscal Management
The Pew Charitable Trusts' states' fiscal health project studies the budget and economic challenges facing states and helps them design targeted, evidence-based solutions. The project addresses four policy areas: strengthening economic development tax incentives; building effective budget reserves; ensuring that debt is affordable; and evaluating municipal finances.
- Strengthening economic development tax incentives: Tax incentives are one of the primary tools states use to try to strengthen their economies. They also collectively cost states billions of dollars a year, so lawmakers need good information on their results. We help states design processes to regularly study these programs. Then we assist the staff members who produce these evaluations to ensure that their analyses are high-quality and draw clear, well-supported conclusions. Finally, we help lawmakers understand and use the evaluations' findings as they consider changing tax incentives.
- Building effective budget reserves: Whether policymakers want to cut taxes, provide high-quality infrastructure and services, pay down liabilities, or spur economic growth, wide swings in a state's resources from year to year can undermine these goals. Savings strategies can mitigate the impact of economic ups and downs on a state's finances. We help states conduct the analyses to examine trends in revenue volatility over time. We also help policymakers to craft effective savings policies, ensuring reserves are available when they are needed most.
- Ensuring that debt is affordable: While state officials frequently borrow to fund long-lasting infrastructure projects to spread the cost over generations and enable states to finance multiple pressing needs simultaneously, they often lack the data needed to make informed decisions about their debt. To address these difficulties, we conduct research to help states better understand how to manage long-term debt and work with policymakers to conduct regular debt affordability studies.
- Evaluating municipal finances: State and local policymakers have a critical stake in strengthening cities' long-term fiscal well-being and generating opportunities for economic development. To inform these critical conversations, we study the fiscal landscape of cities, best practices for proactively assessing local governments' financial conditions, and policy options that can improve localities' fiscal outcomes.
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MORE FROM PEW
Explore Pew’s new and improved
Fiscal 50 interactive
Your state's stats are more accessible than ever with our new and improved Fiscal 50 interactive:
- Maps, trends, and customizable charts
- 50-state rankings
- Analysis of what it all means
- Shareable graphics and downloadable data
- Proven fiscal policy strategies
Welcome to the new Fiscal 50
Key changes include:
- State pages that help you keep track of trends in your home state and provide national and regional context.
- Interactive indicator pages with highly customizable and shareable data visualizations.
- A Budget Threads feature that offers Pew’s read on the latest state fiscal news.