Recent Issues
Tracking State Budget Trends
The 2016-17 General Fund budget added to Pennsylvania’s fiscal challenges. Lawmakers approved the $31.6 billion budget without implementing meaningful reforms or authorizing enough revenue to balance the budget. Despite lacking solid revenue sources, the legislature increased spending by $1.6 billion—a sum vastly exceeding the combined growth rate of inflation and population.
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New IFO Report Emphasizes Need to Reform Spending
Yesterday’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) mid-year report warned Pennsylvania could face a $900 million budget shortfall this year alone. By 2022, this deficit could reach $3 billion per year.
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Pennsylvania State Budget Toolkit
The enacted $29 billion General Fund budget (a 1.88 percent increase over 2013-2014) and $71.4 billion total operating budget represent Pennsylvania’s highest spending levels ever—exceeding years when federal stimulus dollars were used to balance the budget.
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Recent Blog Posts
Op-Ed: Biden's spending binge makes Americans poorer, just before the holidays
Biden and his allies in Congress need to stop this destructive spending now.
A Report on the Public Credit
The state government uses special entities to borrow in excess of the constitutional debt limit and make loans and guarantees that would otherwise be illegal.
It Won't Get Easier: Our Take on the State's Five Year Outlook
Last week the Independent Fiscal Office presented its latest five year projections. They describe a government habitually unable to balance its books, even in today's strong economy.