NASBO held its 2016 Fall Meeting in Alexandria, Virginia on October 13-14. Budget officers from 22 states heard directly from a number of leading experts on current issues including the national economic outlook, debt affordability, tax and revenue issues, Medicaid and the federal budget. Budget officers also shared insights with their colleagues about their state's current FY17 revenue picture and potential FY18 budget challenges.
Below is a brief summary of the presentations made during the meeting.
Federal Budget Update
Marcia Howard, Executive Director, and Trinity Tomsic, Deputy Director with Federal Funds Information for States provided a federal budget update and discussed potential lame duck issues including opioids, TANF and child welfare.
Economic Outlook
Dan White, Senior Economist with Moody's Analytics discussed wage growth, housing and the tax slowdown - all important economic indicators for states.
Overview of Pew's 50-State Debt Affordability Study
Mary Murphy, Manager, State and Local Fiscal Health with The Pew Charitable Trusts shared Pew's preliminary findings about how states assess debt affordability through the use of debt affordability studies, and characteristics of debt calculations and debt metrics.
National Tax Issues Affecting States
Jason Dilges, Chief Financial Officer for the State of South Dakota shared information about South Dakota's new remote seller's sales tax law and the current status of litigation around the law.
Matt Fabian, Partner with Municipal Marketing Analytics provided a perspective on implications to states and localities of hypothetical changes to federal law on municipal debt.
State Budgets: Truth, Integrity & Challenges Ahead
William Glasgall, State and Local Program Director with the Volcker Alliance provided information about their current 50-state review of best practices and challenges.
Update on State Revenues
Don Boyd, Director of Fiscal Studies with the Rockefeller Institute of Government discussed state revenue trends and shared preliminary April-June 2016 data that shows continued weakness in withholding and sales taxes.
Key Medicaid Issues
Anne Schwartz, Executive Director with MACPAC said they are following developments with the entitlement reform debate, Medicaid expansion, CHIP funding and hospital payments.