Mercatus Events

Issues 101: New Ideas for a New Session - Budgeting in a Downturn

Jan 26, 2009 – Jan 27, 2009
9:30am – 10:45am
60 East Wing, Capitol Building

As a welcome to new and returning policy makers, Capital Campus Pennsylvania is hosting a pair of welcome events entitled Issues 101: New Ideas for a New Session.

The two events will feature presentations on policy issues that are of highly relevant concern to Pennsylvania policy makers; Budgeting in a Downturn and Health Care.

To view a video archive of this presentation, please click here.

Featuring:

Scott Pattison
Executive Director
National Association of State Budget Officers
Click Here to view Scott Pattison's powerpoint presentation from this lecture.

Matt Marlin, Ph.D
Professor of Economics and Chair, Economics and Quantitative Science Department
Duquesne University
Click Here to view Dr. Marlin's powerpoint presentation from this lecture.

Pavel Yakovlev, Ph.D
Assistant Professor of Economics
Duquesne University
Click Here to view Dr. Yakovlev's powerpoint presentation from this lecture.

The current economic slowdown has taken its toll on state budgets across the country and Pennsylvania is no exception. Policy makers in the state face a myriad of budgetary problems and only painful or unpopular solutions remain. Unfortunately, state policy makers rarely have time to reconsider their overall fiscal systems to prevent the underlying problems that caused the current crisis from re-emerging in the future.

This session will be part 1 of a 2 part course series “Issues 101: New Ideas for a New Session”. It will give a background on state budgetary issues from a variety of perspectives. First, Scott Pattison, Executive Director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, will provide a snapshot of budget problems being faced across the country and how some states are handling it. Dr. Matt Marlin of Duquesne University will discuss Pennsylvania’s retirement pension programs with an emphasis on legacy costs. Finally, Dr. Pavel Yakovlev of Duquesne University will discuss how tax systems are affected by downturns in the economy and how they can be changed to stave off losses in revenue for the state.

Attendees will leave this course with a better understanding of the following questions:

  • How are other states faring with their budgets? What are the best practices that can be gleaned from the experiences of other states?
  • How do tax structures affect revenue collection?
  • How should state tax systems respond to the fiscal instability created by budget constraints?
  • What is the long-term cost and viability of Pennsylvania’s pension systems?