Good data from Veronique de Rugy at the National Review:
[Nevada] has a 14.3 percent unemployment rate, the highest in the country, and it has so far received $561.55 per person in stimulus funds. That’s a little more than half of the average stimulus per person received by the state
Today, Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, addressed the annual meeting of the Southern Legislative Conference of the Council of State Governments. The topic was timely: the yawning budget gaps facing states.
After two months of wrangling, Congress passed an extension of unemployment benefits earlier this month. But a number of other of vital safety-net programs remain in limbo.
On Tuesday, the Senate plans to vote on a federal extension of unemployment benefits, blocked by Senate Republicans for an unprecedented two months. The swearing-in of Carte Goodwin, the temporary replacement for the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), will give Democrats the crucial 60th vote to overcome a More…
There are only four states — North Dakota, Alaska, Arkansas and Montana — that will not run a budget deficit in the next fiscal year, which for states, though not the federal government, starts on Thursday. All 46 others plus the District of Columbia will be in the red More…
The Economic Policy Institute has posted a new study of the average duration of unemployment by state. The report shows that workers wait longest for jobs in Michigan and South Carolina, and that last month “the median length of unemployment in the United States was 21.6 weeks, up from More…
All that hand-wringing over California being the next Greece might not be for nothing. States are starting to report their April tax collections, and several have announced numbers far lower than expected even a few weeks ago, auguring bigger deficits and budget shortfalls for next year. The Wall Street More…
Looks like last month’s massive oil spill will have an impact on drilling provisions in the climate bill after all. The Washington Post reports that the climate bill Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) will introduce tomorrow — without their erstwhile partner Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) More…
Most state unemployment programs are flat broke, according to federal analysts, and the states themselves are largely to blame.
Thirty-four state unemployment insurance trust funds have run dry as a result of the recent recession, forcing those programs to take out nearly $40 billion in federal loans to weather the More…
A decade’s worth of cuts in federal aid combined with states moving to copy Bush administration tax cuts have led to states filling revenue shortfalls with regressive tax policies that disproportionately affect the poorest Americans. According to “Who Pays?” a report issued in November by the Institute on Taxation & More…
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