This 60 Minutes piece is a good overview of what states are facing now and going into 2011. Federal stimulus money is drying up with little appetite for another bailout; states grew their spending at a pace that has outstripped revenues; public employee benefits and pensions so generous as to be unsustainable, with backfilling stock market losses now being a big part of current state budget deficits; and Illinois sitting on 6 months of unpaid bills. Experts from all over the political spectrum have talked about the “new normal” for state budgets, and how state and local governments need to take a hard look at what they do and how they do it. The days of assuming 6 or 8 percent annual growth in spending are probably behind us. 14 minutes. Update: Unsuccessful at embedding it on our website. Check out the video here.
