During and after the 2001 recession, U.S. states did about $30 billion in deficit financing, S&P says. (That is, they borrowed long-term, restructured existing debt, or securitized stuff with the aim of getting cash immediately for operating spending.)
This time around, as of December 2009, states had done or were planning to do $15 billion in deficit financing.
The lower number so far largely due to stimulus. The federal government did the borrowing itself, and gave the proceeds to the states.
Now that stimulus is running out, states are picking up the slack. Witness New York Lt. Gov. Dick Ravitch’s plan to issue up to $6 billion in debt for operating cash over the next five years.
You may also like
New Yorkers’ Health Costs Spiral as Officials Take Credit for ‘Savings’
The latest round of health insurance premium hikes announced by New York regulators adds to evidence that state policies are drowning consumers instead of helping them.
Late last mo Read More
The Math Does Not Support New York’s Climate Plan
I am not anti-renewable and I am not a climate denier. What I am is an engineer that lives by numbers. The numbers underpinning the CLCPA—namely the belief that New York can replace most of its natural gas-fired electricity generation with renewables in the next six or even nine years—are a fantasy. Read More
What Paul Francis Got Wrong About the Empire Center’s Nursing Home Research
In February 2021, the Empire Center published the first independent analysis of the Cuomo's administration much-debated directive ordering Covid-positive patients into nursing homes. The report found that the directive was associated with a statistically significant increase in resident deaths in the homes that admitted the infected patients. Read More
State Energy Planning Board Flouts the Law
The New York State Energy Planning Board reconvened yesterday to kick off a new round of energy planning. And it violated the state's Open Meetings Law before the gavel fell. Read More
Internal Cuomo Administration Documents Showed Evidence of Harm from Nursing Home Order
State Health Department documents from June 2020, newly unearthed by congressional investigators, appear to show harmful effects from a controversial order requiring nursing homes to admit Covid-positive patients.
Read More
NY Taxpayers Face Bitter Truth from Sweeter Pensions
Governor Hochul and state lawmakers this year approved a costly giveaway for public employee unions that retroactively hiked pension benefits. Now the bill is arriving. Read More
On Covid in Nursing Homes, There’s No Comparison Between Cuomo and Walz
Former Governor Andrew Cuomo and his political critics have something in common: They're both trying to drag Minnesota Governor Tim Walz into Cuomo's nursing home scandal.
Cuomo’s attempt to hide behind Walz, li Read More
Learning Nothing, NY Heads Back to School
The start of a new school year finds New York’s public education system in a well-funded state of confusion and contradiction: flush with cash amid falling test scores and declining enrollment, spending more than ever as state-level bureaucrats plan to weaken graduation standards—but still can’t tell parents how their students performed in last spring’s assessments. Read More