Maurer School of Law: Indiana University Digital Repository @ Maurer Law Articles by Maurer Faculty Faculty Scholarship 2010 Preventing State Budget Crises: Managing the Fiscal Volatility Problem David Gamage Indiana University Maurer School of Law,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facpub Part of the Finance and Financial Management Commons, Public Administration Commons, and the Taxation-State and Local Commons Recommended Citation Gamage, David, "Preventing State Budget Crises: Managing the Fiscal Volatility Problem" (2010). Articles by Maurer Faculty. 2415. https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facpub/2415 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles by Maurer Faculty by an authorized administrator of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Preventing State Budget Crises: Managing the Fiscal Volatility Problem David Gamagef State governments have been on a fiscal rollercoaster in recent years. The mild recession of the early 1990s-which created budget crises in many states-was followed by strong growth during the later part of the decade. States used their then-overflowing coffers to pass numerous tax cuts while increasing funding for a variety of government programs. Yet the bursting of the tech bubble in 2001 brought about a new round of budgetary emergencies, this time of even larger magnitude.' "By January 2003, combined state budget gaps were estimated at $75 to $80 billion, or 14.5 to 18 percent of total state spending." 2 Boom and bust cycles are a fact of modem economic life.