Infographics

According to the National Association of State Budget Officers’ Fall 2016 Fiscal Survey of the States, most states are seeing weaker revenue conditions from 2016 carrying into fiscal 2017. At the time of data collection, 24 states reported general fund revenues for fiscal 2017 were coming in below forecast, while 16 states were on target and four states were above forecast. 

Check out our ongoing coverage of state budgets in 2017 HERE.

Health policies and programs in the states face an uncertain future with the election of Donald J. Trump. During his campaign he vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Currently 73 million Americans are enrolled in the Medicaid program, a federal-state partnership program for which the federal government pays 62 percent of total expenditures. A Medicaid block grant, one proposal under discussion, might provide the states more flexibility but also might transfer more financial responsibility, especially in the long term, to the states. 

According to an annual survey by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), 7.0 percent of U.S. households were “unbanked” in 2015, which means that no one in the household had a checking or savings account. That’s around 9 million households consisting of 15.6 million adults and 7.6 million children. The percentage of the population that is unbanked varies considerably across states, ranging from a low of less than 2 percent in New Hampshire and Vermont to more than 10 percent in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Louisiana has the highest rate at 14 percent.

Yesterday voters in five states (Arizona, Colorado, Maine, South Dakota and Washington) weighed in on the minimum wage through ballot initiatives. All of the initiatives were approved except one: voters in South Dakota rejected a measure that would roll back the minimum wage for workers under 18 from $8.50 to $7.50. That means that minimum wage earners in four states will see a raise in coming years.  

There are now more Americans age 65 and older than ever before. About 1 in 7 people (15 percent) in the U.S. is now considered to be an “older American” or someone over the age of 65. Compare that to just 4.1 percent of the population in 1900 or 10 percent in 1970—and that figure will continue to increase in the decades to come.