Competing tax plans try California voters
State governor stakes his term on convincing electorate to back his proposal while a civil rights lawyer wants hers to win to prop up schools
US states of emergency
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Investors have begun to turn their attention towards the risk of default by state and local governments in the US amid signs that some regions face difficulties in curbing budget deficits, increasing the cost of public debt
Tax protests disrupt CME annual meeting
Demonstrators repeatedly challenged management about tax relief the company received from the cash-strapped state of Illinois last year
Brown cuts threaten social safety net
California governor Jerry Brown takes axe to services for elderly, poor, disabled and unemployed to close the state’s projected $15.7bn deficit
Democrat to fight Wisconsin recall vote
Tom Barrett is the party’s candidate in the campaign to oust Republican governor Scott Walker over controversial labour laws in a rerun of 2010 poll
State revenues rise to pre-recession levels
Total tax collections by US states in the fourth quarter of 2011 for the first time topped levels at the beginning of the recession four years ago
US states face legal action over pensions
Courts are increasingly ruling on attempts to change the retirement benefits of public sector workers as states try to plug a growing shortfall
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US state budget gaps
As the US government faces its own funding crisis and politicians wrangle over stimulus funding and the federal budget, each government of the 50 states is grappling with the effects of the recession on their funds
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One man stands between California and a bleak future
It is the current bias towards stimulus and away from austerity that has proved to be disastrous for California, writes Christopher Caldwell
California screamin’
Sacramento has long been the vanguard that the rest of the US follows. It is now also the less inspiring beacon of total fiscal ungovernability
Rust-belt mayor resolves to stop city’s rot
Karen Freeman-Wilson will require more than quick fiscal fixes to revive the ‘murder capital of America’, whose budget has dropped precipitously
Wisconsin vote highlights US polarisation
Scott Walker, the state’s Republican governor, tells the FT he did not expect such attention over a vote next month to remove him from office
Rhode Island’s fiscal reforms offer hope
Rhode Island politician recognises drastic times call for drastic measures and by being transparent has sold her vision to the electorate
Wisconsin’s unions look to bigger battle
Fate of state’s Republican governor will be decided in a recall election in early June and constitutes a test of power for labour organisers
City counts cost of housing market crash
In the good years, Stockton in California promised benefits to its workers and good services to its citizens. But its revenue has plummeted
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