In an election year dominated by the pitched battle for Congress and major governors' races, state ballot measures involving education are largely tied to a similar theme: the burden of funding K-12 programs when state finances are shaky. In some cases, initiatives, constitutional amendments, and other ballot measures seek to tap new sources of…

The financial state of the nation's public pension funds--which provide the retirement incomes for all state employees but in most states are dominated by teachers, administrators, and other school employees--has gone from bad to worse, and is projected to continue to worsen in coming decades. A perfect storm of factors has combined in the past…

With his state flush with cash, Gov. Michael F. Easley of North Carolina can have the best of both worlds. Sitting on a $1 billion surplus in an operating budget of $17.4 billion, the second-term Democrat last week proposed a politically popular 13 percent spending increase for K-12 education, while also asking the legislature to block scheduled…

During the 1980s Alaska's state and local governments spent two to three times more per capita than governments in other states but taxed individuals and businesses only about half as much. They were able to do this because high petroleum revenues paid most government expenses. Petroleum revenues began declining in the 1980s, and by the year 2000,…

Alaska became suddenly and surprisingly rich in the early 1980s, with oil revenues from Prudhoe Bay paying for almost all state operations, picking up some of the costs of local government, creating a huge state savings account, paying all Alaskans annual cash dividends, and eliminating the need for state personal income taxes. The smaller…

Alaska will face a large fiscal gap and growing budget deficits in the near future. The timing of such fiscal gap open hinges on the joint effect of state budget growth and the oil price change. This paper explains Alaska's dependence on state spending and offers policy options addressing the fiscal gap. State spending: (1) supports nearly one in…

The State of Alaska spends 75% of its operating revenues on transfer payments to individuals and local governments and on salaries and benefits of state workers. By the year 2000, dwindling petroleum revenues will result in a projected $1 billion gap between state income and spending, but inflation and growing population could widen that gap to…

Describes how state and local school aid systems operate in Oklahoma, Delaware, and Alaska, how they have changed, how equity objectives vary among them, and how well the systems achieve objectives. Emphasizes special circumstances in each state and finds that equity must be studied in relation to other policy objectives. (JW)

Alaska faces a problem that is easy to explain but hard to solve: state government is spending more than it collects. The budget crisis looms because oil production, which supplies 85% of the state's general fund revenues, will soon begin to fall as the Prudhoe Bay oil field is depleted. This paper examines the potential deficit and the effect it…

Providing a basis to help Alaskans determine future spending levels and priorities, this report traces how the state spent more than $26 billion in general funds from fiscal years 1981 through 1986 before oil prices crashed and brought state revenues tumbling down with them. Figures indicate that cumulative general fund expenditures over the…