- Consulting Editors
- [UNTITLED]
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction: State and Local Government Finance in The United States
- The Constitutional Frameworks of State and Local Government Finance
- Federalism Trends, Tensions, and Outlook
- State and Local Government Finance: Why It Matters
- State and Local Governments and The National Economy
- The Evolving Financial Architecture of State And Local Governments
- Profiles of Local Government Finance
- Federal Preemption of Revenue Autonomy
- State Intergovernmental Grant Programs
- State and Local Fiscal Institutions in Recession and Recovery
- Real Property Tax
- State Personal Income Taxes
- State Corporate Income Taxes
- Entity Taxation of Business Enterprises
- Implications Of a Federal Value-Added Tax for State and Local Governments
- Retail Sales and use Taxation
- Local Revenue Diversification: User Charges, Sales Taxes, and Income Taxes
- State Tax Administration: Seven Problems in Search of a Solution
- Revenue Estimation
- Providing and Financing K–12 Education
- The Social Safety Net, Health Care, and the Great Recession
- Transportation Finance
- Housing Policy: The Evolving Subnational Role
- Capital Budgeting and Spending
- Financial Markets and State and Local Governments
- Infrastructure Privatization in The New Millennium
- Financial Emergencies: Default and Bankruptcy
- Government Financial-Reporting Standards: Reviewing the Past and Present, Anticipating the Future
- Pullback Management: State Budgeting Under Fiscal Stress
- Public Employee Pensions and Investments
- Accomplishing State Budget Policy and Process Reforms
- Fiscal Austerity and the Future of Federalism
- Achieving Fiscal Sustainability for State and Local Governments
- The Intergovernmental Grant System
- Community Associations at Middle Age: Considering the Options
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
This article analyzes the challenge of state budgeting during periods of dramatic and unplanned declines in state revenue collections. Most public finance textbooks describe the budget process as an orderly cycle of preparation, approval, execution, and evaluation. When governments are experiencing a steady growth or only marginal declines in revenues such as during the past two decades (1989–2009), it's easy to see how state budget officials can become accustomed to a predictable, “regular rhythm.” Thus, when the Great Recession hit, a series of month-after-month and quarter-after-quarter revenue shortfalls affected nearly all state budgets. The result was that with little warning and preparation, policymakers faced midyear budget deficits. This article takes on the topic of managing midyear budget adjustments. Beginning with a review of the institutional tools available to governors and legislatures (e.g., allotments, apportionment, budgeting, impoundments, special fund transfers, fund withholdings, furloughs), the article carries out a study of how five states went about balancing their budgets in 2009–2010 and how the lessons from these state responses can inform those dealing with the next fiscal crisis.
Keywords: state budgeting, state revenue collection, Great Recession, revenue shortfalls, fiscal crisis, state responses
Carolyn Bourdeaux is an Associate Professor at Andrew Young School of Policy Studies and Associate Director of the Georgia State University Fiscal Research Center.
W. Bartley Hildreth is a Professor in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.
Access to the complete content on Oxford Handbooks Online requires a subscription or purchase. Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter without a subscription.
Please subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code.
For questions on access or troubleshooting, please check our FAQs, and if you can''t find the answer there, please contact us.
- Consulting Editors
- [UNTITLED]
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction: State and Local Government Finance in The United States
- The Constitutional Frameworks of State and Local Government Finance
- Federalism Trends, Tensions, and Outlook
- State and Local Government Finance: Why It Matters
- State and Local Governments and The National Economy
- The Evolving Financial Architecture of State And Local Governments
- Profiles of Local Government Finance
- Federal Preemption of Revenue Autonomy
- State Intergovernmental Grant Programs
- State and Local Fiscal Institutions in Recession and Recovery
- Real Property Tax
- State Personal Income Taxes
- State Corporate Income Taxes
- Entity Taxation of Business Enterprises
- Implications Of a Federal Value-Added Tax for State and Local Governments
- Retail Sales and use Taxation
- Local Revenue Diversification: User Charges, Sales Taxes, and Income Taxes
- State Tax Administration: Seven Problems in Search of a Solution
- Revenue Estimation
- Providing and Financing K–12 Education
- The Social Safety Net, Health Care, and the Great Recession
- Transportation Finance
- Housing Policy: The Evolving Subnational Role
- Capital Budgeting and Spending
- Financial Markets and State and Local Governments
- Infrastructure Privatization in The New Millennium
- Financial Emergencies: Default and Bankruptcy
- Government Financial-Reporting Standards: Reviewing the Past and Present, Anticipating the Future
- Pullback Management: State Budgeting Under Fiscal Stress
- Public Employee Pensions and Investments
- Accomplishing State Budget Policy and Process Reforms
- Fiscal Austerity and the Future of Federalism
- Achieving Fiscal Sustainability for State and Local Governments
- The Intergovernmental Grant System
- Community Associations at Middle Age: Considering the Options
- Index