The past five years have been unusually volatile for state and local finances. Pandemic-era federal aid and strong revenues gave governments breathing room. Then interest rates rose, inflation pushed up salaries and pension costs, and federal support receded. Fiscal Year 2024 is the first year to offer a complete picture of what that cycle left behind, and it’s more complicated than the top-line numbers suggest.
Reason Foundation has released a new edition of its Government Finance Dashboard, adding fiscal year 2024—the most recent year of financial reports available across governments—for 22,637 state and local governments. For the first time, the dashboard also lets users access financial data back to 2020 for the largest government entities.
Speakers
Mariana Trujillo: Managing director of government finance, Reason Foundation
Jordan Campbell: Managing director of government finance and senior quantitative analyst, Reason Foundation