Local government leaders' threat to cut about half a million workers because of the recession is nothing more than a shakedown based on a lie.

The Big Shakedown begins, based on the Big Lie.

The Big Shakedown is a threat by local officials to lay off up to 500,000 municipal and county workers over the next two [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a compilation of official state debt and obligations compiled from the most recent public records available and a foundation report. It represents only a fraction of total long-term deficits. This report should be used as a minimum baseline for further research.

Aggregate state debt now exceeds $1.8 trillion, with much more potentially hidden off [...]

State and local pensions remain in a hole at least $1.3 trillion deep despite transient gains in the first quarter of 2010. That's about $12,000 for every private sector worker due right now just to get the funds on an even keel.

Each private sector worker in America owes state and local government pension funds at [...]

By Jason Stverak

When your cell phone breaks or your computer crashes you no longer expect to speak to a call center in the United States. Numerous companies have outsourced parts of their business operations to contractors in other countries in an effort to improve their bottom line and increase productivity. Regardless of the public perception [...]

Taxpayers in at least nine states have almost $3 trillion in "exposure" because leaders underfunded insurance programs. One proposed solution is "catastrophe bonds."   

Now we’re staring into the abyss of “catastrophe bonds” as a way to deal with some states’ gross mismanagement of insuring high-risk areas against the inevitable.

According to a recent Government Accountability Office [...]

Slight increase in state and local tax collections in the first quarter of this year puts total take at levels of boom years 2006 and 2007, but politicians still claim there is a crisis.

Before state and local officials start their spending spree based on the latest glimmer of hope in tax collections, they should take [...]

Balanced state budgets? All lies.

When state politicians tell us they “balanced” their budgets by July 1 just count on the fact they are most likely lying.
Some are telling little lies, some big lies, and a few are so far gone they’re not even really bothering to lie about it anymore.
Governors in New York — three [...]

Signs of a weak economic recovery and two years of tax increases mean states took more out of our pockets than they spent in the first quarter of this year. They're calling it a surplus, but it's not. Virtually every state owes money on hidden debts that have piled up for years and are now [...]

At the Franklin Center, we want to hear about what you think about the possible government bailout of  failing newspaper & media organizations.  Help us out by forwarding this poll to your friends, family and other readers.
To subscribe to Franklin Center’s newsletters click here

A National Association of State Budget Officers’ fiscal survey of states doesn’t even begin to reveal the magnitude of the crisis despite tax revenues $25 billion higher than pre-recession levels. They should check with taxpayers on how bad things really are.

Where exactly have you been the last few years, state budget officers? [...]