United Van Lines (UVL) is one of the largest moving companies in the United States. Each year since 1977, UVL has issued a study of interstate migration patterns. This study reports the share of outbound shipments in total interstate shipments for UVL for each of the 48 “Lower United States” (e.g. all states but Alaska and Hawaii). We include this data in State Data Lab, along with a wide variety of other economic, demographic, and government financial data. On January 2 2014, UVL publicly rele...

State and local governments can agree to stand behind each other’s debts. These agreements became more common in recent years, amidst the Great Recession and higher government fiscal stress. In accounting lingo, the deals are called “nonexchange financial guarantees.” In April 2013, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued Statement No. 70: “Accounting and Financial Reporting for Nonexchange Financial Guarantees.” This statement will bring some transparency. It may help enhance...

... and why does this matter for government accounting? The financial crisis in recent years challenged many widely-held assumptions, including an assumption of innocence for ‘cash and cash equivalents.’   The fearful crowd lost confidence generally, and rationally, given the leverage in the system, resulting in a widespread run on the bank.  But we aren’t in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.  This isn’t Jimmy Stewart’s banking system. The complexity and breadth of ‘cash’ instruments has blossomed with...

In 2011, Wisconsin state budget and accounting issues actually got so exciting they brought reminders of protests from the 1960s and 1970s.  The 2011 debate centered on how the state would approach paying retirement benefits for government workers.   Wisconsin’s ‘Budget Repair Bill’ included provisions to limit pay and benefits and to restrict collective bargaining. These provisions sparked widespread protest, including counter-protests in favor of the bill.  After the Wisconsin Supreme Court up...

More states file “on time” -- on their own standard, anyway Truthful accounting includes timely accounting.   Our governments have made some progress on this score, but we believe there is still a lot of room for improvement. We track the timeliness of state government financial reporting, as part of our annual review of the states’ “Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports” (CAFRs).   From 2009 to 2011, less than half of the states met the timeliness standard set by the Government Finance Offic...

Demand, meet Supply Amidst some disenchantment with both major political parties, the chart above shows, when looking across the 50 states, the share of votes earned by candidates that were not either Democratic or Republican has fallen significantly for U.S. House of Representative elections since 2000. The State Data Lab resource (Votes Cast for House Election – Other), developed by Truth in Accounting, shows that states with relatively high shares of non-major party votes in 2000 also had s...

Earlier this year, Michigan became the 24th state in the nation with a ‘right-to-work’ law. And two weeks ago, a Michigan court ruled that the state’s new ‘right to work’ law applies to unionized state government workers. This means that state workers will not be forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment beginning next year. These developments inspired some dramatic public debate. Thus far, however, business leaders and labor lawyers are reporting little dramatic change in the degre...

State interest expenses have risen even as interest rates have fallen. It’s general knowledge that falling interest rates help debtors.  As long as a loan can be refinanced at a new, lower rate, a debtor can expect lower payments. Then what’s going on with the fifty states? Interest rates have been falling significantly since 2007, but the cumulative interest expense of the states has been steadily marching higher anyway. From fiscal 2005 to 2012, total interest expense reported by the 50 st...

Sam Beebe - http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8322/7975001982_974eb74b1e_o.jpg It looks like the Motor City has finally broken down, and it’s heading to the mechanic shop to see what can be salvaged. In the latest development of the tragic decline of this iconic city, Detroit filed a petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. While Detroit’s situation is steering into ugly legal avenues, there are important principles that states and other cities would be wise to recognize.  A...