The SJ-R recently reprinted a Champaign News-Gazette editorial citing Truth in Accounting about state fiscal health. The lack of complete information calls into question “Truth.”

According to a report by 247wallst.com, Kentucky has the worst managed pension fund in the country putting benefits at risk for many future retirees.

Charles Wheeler III, a leading authority on Illinois government, will talk about the "state of the state," including state pensions, on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at Eastern Illinois University.

A national watchdog group says that the State of Texas’ finances are continuing to deteriorate, as shown by recent statistics on relative debt burden among U.S. states.

Many US states claim to balance their budgets, but for decades they have underreported or understated huge liabilities in pension benefits.Many US states claim to balance their budgets, but for decades they have underreported or understated huge liabilities in pension benefits.

Amid a spiraling economic crisis in Puerto Rico, Congress established a control board to impose outside discipline. The Supreme Court on Tuesday will consider the board’s constitutionality in a case that ostensibly pits Congress’s plenary authority over U.S. territories against the Appointments Clause. Yet there is no real constitutional conflict between the two.

These are just three places in the United States that we’ve talked about in The Beacon because their recent history has been defined by the fiscal problems each faces. Fiscal problems that arise only because they don’t have the money to fund the generous retirement benefits their politicians have promised to their government employees.

Last week, General Electric announced the impending freeze of its pension plans to new accrual, for salaried workers and executives. And, as much as we’re accustomed to the stories of woefully-underfunded public pensions and multi-employer pensions, it’s worth taking a look at the situation at GE, and asking the question, why were GE’s plans so underfunded that they felt it necessary to take this step?

Starting in 2016, our state university system [North Dakota] endured three successive rounds of annual budget cuts, with average 10-percent reductions resulting in a loss of more than a third of the system’s overall funding. Additional cuts, even, were on the table this past year. And while our state legislators ultimately avoided taking yet one more stab at the dismembered body of higher education, there has been no discussion of restoring any of those funds.

Shreveport, a town of less than 200,000 residents, is in debt to the tune of more than $1 billion, according to a report published by the State Legislative Auditor’s Office (LAO).