By Robert Montoya, includes “School district debts in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio are alarmingly high at more than $7 billion. When you add these to the cities’ debts and other underlying governments, the combined debt each taxpayer must pay is $69,600. Change will only come when ‘citizen advocates’ get involved.”
 

Editorial, includes “A recent report on the financially sick status of municipal pensions in Illinois made a big splash, but not as big as it should have. As she surveys the financial wreckage that envelops state and local government in Illinois, Sheila Weinberg embraces grim reality. ”

Video interview and discussion with Steven Malanga, senior editor at City Journal and Manhattan Institute fellow, and Sheila Weinberg, CEO and founder of Truth in Accounting. 

Interview of Sheila Weinberg by Greg Bishop re: our latest City Combined Taxpayer Burden report, including the findings re: Chicago.

Video segment, text intro includes “Thanks to a little-known pension perk, some former Illinois lawmakers are earning more in retirement than they did while in office. … ‘I do not, unfortunately, even though I live in Illinois, have hope for Illinois,’ Weinberg says.”

By Truth in Accounting, includes “Timely information is crucial during government decision processes like budgeting. However, most states issue their Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFR) long after their fiscal year's end. Several states have still not issued their 2020 annual financial reports even though their fiscal years ended more than 300 days ago.”

By Robert Montoya, includes “Q. Truth in Accounting found Fort Worth to be a sinkhole city, meaning it would need $9,400 more per taxpayer to pay all of its debts. They found most of the problems stem from growing unfunded retirement obligations. ”

By Benjamin Fearnow, includes “… The government finance watchdog group Truth in Accounting gave the city of Chicago's government an ‘F’ for its financial health rating in a February report card.”

One-hour podcast interview, text intro includes “Bill Bergman, director of research for Truth in Accounting, joins us to discuss recent proposals by the Government Accounting Standards Board and their effect on accrual accounting. He explores the status of GASB Projects 3-20 and 3-25, whether the new proposals change the definition of accrual accounting, and how they relate to revenue recognition.”

By David Wagner, includes “… The report states the Treasury only considers $175.3 billion of Social Security and Medicare liabilities as debt because, ‘recipients do not have the right to benefits beyond the benefits currently being paid and laws to reduce or stop future benefits can be passed at any time."