National Group Hails Iowa’s Budgeting Practices

The Council of State Governments (CSG) recently released a report on the fiscal situations of each state in the country and the resiliency of the budgets in those states. The State of Iowa is the most fiscally sound, most resilient state in the country when it comes to battling through COVID-19, according to a new report issued in July of 2020.

“CSG’s newest report validates the conservative budgeting practices Senate Republicans have implemented for the last four years,” said Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, R-Ankeny. “Contrasted with the record of generational debt and massive cuts to K-12 education under Democrat control, Iowans can be confident in stable and predictable funding under Republican leadership.”

CSG commissioned the accounting firm KPMG to study the fiscal risk and resiliency of each state in dealing with COVID-19. The study weighed several factors including percent of GDP by industry in each state, the expected reduction of state revenues, balance in each state’s rainy day fund, each state’s debt to income ratio, the solvency of each state’s pension system and each state’s unemployment trust fund, as well as each state’s cost per enrollee in Medicaid, and growth in K-12 education funding since the Great Recession. 

The full report can be downloaded from this link: https://web.csg.org/COVID19/fiscalimpact/.