"The state doesn't have money sitting around that can be used for settlements like this," said Sheila A. Weinberg, founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting. "To pay for this settlement, taxes will have to be raised or services and benefits will have to be cut. The other option is to even underfund the pension and retiree health care benefits even more."

Hawaii is the first to settle a climate change lawsuit, but it may not be the last. The case may set a precedent in other states where young people have filed lawsuits over climate concerns, according to an op-ed written by Cara Horowitz, executive director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the institute's communications director, Evan George.

A report by the nonprofit organization Truth in Accounting arrived the week early voting started for the Longview mayoral election in May.

That assessment, though, was based off old information and uses a standard that Truth in Accounting established that measures government finances differently than is accepted practice.

We've all felt some mistrust towards the government. We're trying to rebuild that trust alongside other nonprofits, educators, policy-makers, public servants, and journalists. We're sad to see that the Longview News-Journal didn't see that mission when covering our special report on the city of Longview, TX.

Have you ever wondered which cities in America are grappling with poor management, inefficient services, and financial struggles? Some cities suffer serious administrative woes, from ballooning budgets to crumbling infrastructures. These are the cities where mismanagement and chaos reign supreme.

Dallas Cothrum: An 8-point plan for the next Dallas city manager: stop virtue signaling, control spending, improve customer service, break down silos,...

But some states continue to fail, year after year. Illinois’s pension problem is so severe that pension payments will consume 20 percent of its general funds this fiscal year, yet it is still contributing $4.5 billion less than it should. Illinois has unfunded pension benefits totaling $146 billion. New Jersey’s public-pension system is several times more generous than a typical 401(k), and despite the state’s making its scheduled pension payments the last few years, it is still nowhere close to solvency.

ADDENDUM: Check out this state-by-state pension database from Truth in Accounting to see how your state is doing.

Includes "Not surprisingly, Truth in Accounting, a nonprofit group, earlier this year gave Dallas a sobering D grade for its finances, placing it alongside Houston and Austin toward the bottom of the class."

One-party rule in action: According to the group Truth in Accounting, Chicago continues to live up to its moniker “Second City” in at least one respect: it has thesecond-worstdebt load of any big city in America—about $43,000 per taxpayer, or almost $40 billion in total.

Discover a powerful way to support the Truth in Accounting mission while maximizing your tax benefits. Did you know that a qualified charitable distribution from your IRA’s annual required minimum distribution can be structured to be tax-free? This means that the transferred amount is not taxable as long as it’s paid directly from the IRA to the charitable organization.

Thus, a family moving to Chicago suddenly becomes the inheritor of almost $85,000 in liabilities. By this metric, Chicago is no longer second but has by far the worst debt burden of any major city.