Budget Matters Blog

Entries By Jo Comerford


Remembering Recovery on November 3, 2010

NPP very recently updated all its Federal Priorities Database expenditures and indicators to the state level with the latest data available. We invite you to use the database – especially if you want a post-election memory of the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). See what funding ...

Social Security's Flat Line

Yesterday, the Social Security Administration released an extraordinary amount of data – all the way to the ZIP code-level – focused on Social Security beneficiaries (categorized by the government within three groupings: Old Age, Survivor and Disability). The data lets us see not only the number of folks in a ...

It's All In the Numbers: What's the impact of increased funding for education in Newark, New Jersey?

I was recently a guest lecturer at William Paterson University (WPU) in Wayne, New Jersey. Part of the New Jersey state system, WPU is home to a very diverse and dedicated student body – many of them the first in their families to attend college and virtually all of them ...

Obion, Tennessee: the story of Gene Cranick and an un-paid fire fighting fee

On the afternoon of September 30, a fire destroyed Gene Cranick's home in Obion County, Tennessee. The fire department was on-hand before the fire became un-controllable, but didn't move to extinguish it. It turns out, firefighters arrived because Mr. Cranick's neighbor paid his annual rural fire service fee guaranteeing his ...

Serving up a Discretionary Budget Pizza The first slice for Bangor, Maine

In the last couple of years it's become strikingly clear that the majority of people in the United States do not know where or how their federal tax dollars are spent. As a result, they feel disengaged from both the personal and societal impacts of federal spending and believe they ...

Fall Spotlight on Healthcare

On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPAC). In tandem with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, ratified a week later to amend portions of the PPAC, these two pieces of legislation represent the passage ...

Fall Spotlight on Energy

Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000167 EndHTML:0000012525 StartFragment:0000000604 EndFragment:0000012509 On June 26, 2009 the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) to address the role of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in perpetuating climate change. Most notably, the bill features a 'cap and trade' initiative to set the total volume ...

New Poverty Data Out: What's the Impact on Women?

The U.S. Census Bureau released a report showing a significant decrease in U.S. economic security, tied to a rise in unemployment, between 2008 and 2009. The report highlights trends in median income, poverty and health insurance coverage during this time frame.NPP's Income Security and Labor provide a powerful context for ...

Fall Spotlight on Education

On March 13, 2010 the Obama Administration released its blueprint for reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), known widely now by its most recent reincarnation, the Bush Administration's “No Child Left Behind Act” (NCLB). ESEA mandates that an increased proportion of the education budget be allocated towards programs ...