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Archive of Recession & Recovery on Thursday July 02, 2009
Financial crisis torments states
(Updated 5:25 p.m. EDT, July 1, 2009) California may begin issuing IOUs this week because of the state’s unresolved budget crisis. But government disruptions were averted at least temporarily in five other states that missed a July 1 deadline for closing billion-dollar budget gaps. Read More
Stimulus eases community college troubles
States are digging into their federal stimulus money to help finance community colleges, where rising tuition, soaring enrollment and budget cuts threaten to shut students out of the system. Read More
New section follows stimulus spending
 The enormity and complexity of the federal stimulus program weigh heavily on cash-strapped states, which are required to meet numerous application and reporting deadlines for the $49 billion in recovery money flowing into their treasuries this year. Follow how states are managing their share through extensive original reporting and graphics in Stateline.org’s special section on the stimulus program.
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Weekly wrap: Report questions states' use of stimulus road funds
States are spending too much stimulus money on new road construction and not enough on public transit projects, a national advocacy group claims in a report issued Monday (June 29). Meanwhile, Michigan and California consider teaming up to solve their prison problems and North Carolina and Rhode Island face off with Amazon.com over taxes. Read More
Furloughs cut into state services
With states facing a $121 billion shortfall in the next fiscal year, a growing number of them have turned to squeezing their workforce for savings, and effects both great and small will be felt. Read More
Tracking the recession: Budget deadline looms
Unlike the federal government, states have to balance their budgets. But several states still have not completed spending plans for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Read More
Weekly wrap: Feds release long-awaited stimulus job guidelines
The Obama administration tells state officials to take "a simple headcount" of jobs saved or created by the stimulus program. Meanwhile, the demand for some special jobs is soaring. Officials also warn states not to shortchange education when balancing budgets. Read More
Ga. hotline aims to cut mental health costs
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Tracking the recession: States target jobs
Though unemployment is rising in nearly every state, aggressive efforts to create jobs are paying off — modestly — in many states. Read More
Reports: State income levels plunge
States racing to cobble together new budgets for their July 1 deadline could find themselves sinking back into red ink sooner than they think, as Americans’ income and the taxes they pay on it shrink, new data show. Read More
Weekly wrap: Sales tax fight splits GOP in Arizona
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) sues her own party over the budget. The U.S. labor department releases May unemployment data, and Illinois says it can’t afford to pay for indigent burials. For a quick update on the top recession news in the states, read Stateline.org's "Weekly wrap." Read More
Federal stimulus dollars, state deficits -- and federalism
Even with well-timed help from the economic stimulus package, state governments will face a rough three years ahead, warns Raymond C. Scheppach, an economist and executive director of the National Governors Association, in his latest commentary for Stateline.org. With state budgets through 2011 expected to face shortfalls of $200 billion to $250 billion, the federal government should take care not to heap more costs on states with new legislative initiatives, Scheppach writes. Read More
Three sticking points could stunt stimulus education reform
President Obama is asking states to make education reforms in exchange for almost $40 billion in stimulus funds for schools. But his aspirations may be on a collision course with competing realities, such as pressures to use the money to save teachers' jobs, writes Allison Armour-Garb with the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government in a commentary for Stateline.org. Read More
New York: harbinger of how the stimulus works?
New York is the first state to approve a budget that incorporates federal economic stimulus funds, and the Rockefeller Institute’s David Shaffer says the example it set may portend a troubling state approach to the worst recession in modern times. Read More
The economy, the stimulus package and the states
What are the prospects that the $275 billion being sent to states by the federal stimulus package will help turn the nation’s economy around? In his latest commentary for Stateline.org, Raymond C. Scheppach, an economist and executive director of the National Governors Association, dissects the stimulus package and shows piece-by-piece how states can play a role in the national recovery.
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