Special Briefing on State Budgets: The Big Squeeze

Join William Glasgall, Penn IUR Fellow and Volcker Alliance Public Finance Advisor, and Susan Wachter, Co-Director of Penn IUR and Wharton professor and our expert panel as we address the rapidly darkening outlook for state and local budgets and what this means for policymakers, taxpayers, and investors. 

As the widely adopted July 1 start of their new fiscal year approaches, many states are facing fiscal challenges that few governors were anticipating as they delivered their annual budget messages only a few months ago. Even though states started 2025 projecting healthy cash reserves of almost $300 billion, that cushion will be tested by the Trump administration's suspension of tens of billions of dollars in U.S. grants as well as potential cuts by Congress to federal Medicaid funds. 

A possible threat to the federal tax exemption on most municipal bonds, the impact of a global tariff war, and the rising likelihood of a U.S. recession will also further constrain state and local budgets even as several years of record post-COVID federal stimulus comes to an end.

Featured experts include:

• Emily Brock, Director, Federal Liaison Center, Government Finance Officers Association
• Shelby Kerns, Executive Director, National Association of State Budget Officers
• Vikram Rai, Former Head of Municipal Markets Strategy, Wells Fargo
• Jonathan Womer, Director, RI Department of Administration
• Teryn Zmuda, Chief Economist, National Association of Counties

This briefing is the sixtieth in a series of sixty-minute online conversations on public finance featuring experts from the national research networks of the Volcker Alliance and Penn IUR, along with other leading academics, economists, and federal, state, and local leaders. 

Special Briefings are made possible by funding from The Travelers Institute, the Volcker Alliance, and members of the Penn IUR Advisory Board. Recordings of the entire Special Briefings series are available on the Volcker Alliance or Penn IUR websites. 

Be sure to subscribe to the Special Briefing podcast, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, iHeart Radio and more. 

Subscribe to the Volcker Alliance newsletter and Penn IUR newsletter for advance notice of new Special Briefings.