JANUARY 2-5, 2020

State of the States’ Budgets 2020

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Corina Eckl Mulder

Senate Liaison, Senate Presidents’ Forum
and
Former Director, Leaders’ Services, National Conference of State Legislators

The annual report on the State of the States’ Budgets is a highlight of every January Senate Presidents’ Forum. This year, Ms. Mulder’s upbeat report launched the Forum on a positive note. She reported that most States expect to meet their revenue projections, in part due to the online sales taxes being collected by 43 States. And, while state spending is expected to outpace revenue growth, State year-end balances continue to grow, averaging 9.2%, and Rainy Day Funds also are up, hitting $72 billion overall.

Ms. Mulder pointed out signs of strength in the US economy such as improved US-China trade relations, record stock market gains, and a high level of consumer confidence expressed in spending rates, particularly in Internet sales.

On the other hand, the length of the current economic expansion, at 127 months — the longest ever reported, is also a source of concern, she said. While economic prognosticators predict the expansion will last through 2020, others are concerned that “the longer it goes, the sooner it has to end.” And this concern, as well as uncertainty about the global economy and challenges to meet workforce demand in the US, fuels some caution and hesitancy about State budgets. Ms. Mulder queried the State Senate leaders on the economic outlook in their States. {LINK to Discussion}

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Kevin McLaughlin (SAS) and Sen. Paul Gazelka (MN) reflect on improvements in the States' fiscal health.

Speaker Biography

Corina Eckl Mulder  

Corina Eckl Mulder is the Senate Liaison for the Senate Presidents’ Forum. She is well known to the Forum, having presented the Annual State of the States Review for many years. She developed expertise on state legislatures during her lengthy tenure on the staff of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Her NCSL responsibilities included planning training programs for top state legislative leaders, managing the conference’s core programs as director of State Services, and leading the Fiscal Affairs Program. She has written extensively on state budget issues and has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Financial Times, USA Today, and The Christian Science Monitor, among others. She has appeared on CBS, CNBC, FOX, ABC, CNN, and spoken on the BBC and National Public Radio. She represented NCSL on assignments to Algeria, France, Germany, South Africa, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia. Corina holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Colorado in Denver and a Bachelor of Arts degree from CU-Boulder.