On Tuesday, August 19, the Coalition on Human Needs is once again hosting a webinar to help advocates and analysts prepare for the release of annual data from the Census Bureau about poverty, income, and health insurance in the U.S. The webinar will take place from 2:00 - 3:30 (EST) on the web, and feature Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Insitute, Douglas Hall, Acting Managing Director of Connecticut Voices for Children, Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director of the Coalition on Human Needs, and will be moderated by Ellen Teller, Director of Government Affairs, Food Research and Action Center.

If you are not familiar with CHN's webinar or the annual data release of poverty information from Census, here's a bit of information about what you can expect if you sign up and participate. The webinar will help you:

* to find and understand national numbers and the findings for your state when they're released on August 26
* to see accurate trends over time; whether your state fares better or worse than the national average
* to compare the new data (from 2007) with what we know about the economic woes of 2008, and
* how to talk about the new findings to help build the growing movement for a national commitment to dramatically reduce U.S. poverty.

To sign up to participate and for more information, see CHN's webinar webpage.

The Bush administration announced yesterday that it will not enforce new requirements that would have made it more difficult for states to enroll children in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). USA Today reports that the administration will not be taking "compliance action" at this time on regulations that would have forced states to wait until children are uninsured for one year before being covered by SCHIP and also require states to enroll 95 percent of extremely low-income children in the state before expanding health care coverage to only somewhat low-income families:

The directive was aimed at 15 states that extended health insurance to children in families with incomes above 250% of the federal poverty level — $44,000 for a family of three.

Many governors and Democratic lawmakers criticized the administration's new guidelines as impossible to meet. They said the final result would be that more children would go without health coverage as states rein in their programs.

With the deadline fast approaching, the administration made clear that states were under no immediate threat of losing federal funding.

We commented at the end of July about how Democrats in Congress really dropped the ball in using the Congressional Review Act to impede the Bush administration's efforts to keep kids from having health care. Fortunately, at least for the time being, it looks like they are off the hook.

The OMB Watch Fiscal Policy Program is looking for an intern for the fall of 2008. Yup, that's right. This is your chance to get in on the ground floor at one of the most dynamic nonprofit watchdog groups in Washington, DC. We're looking for energetic undergraduate or graduate students who have excellent writing, critical thinking, and communications skills, and who are dedicated to public policy and government accountability (see current intern Josh at right for example).

The internship is unpaid, but you'll have the chance to gain first hand experiences and take on significant responsibilities related to a number of different aspects of policy analysis in DC. Plus, you'll get a chance to write for the BudgetBlog - what could be better?

Interested? Learn more about the position and how to apply.

The fiscal health of states around the country is continuing to deteriorate, according to an updated report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. CBPP has issued updates to this report, initially released on January 15 this year, as state legislatures have attempted to deal with their budget shortfalls during the FY 2009 state budget process. This will be the last update of this report as only two states are left without an enacted FY 2009 budget.

The latest update from CBPP notes that 29 states and the District of Columbia had to deal with budget gaps this year, totaling $48 billion. The CBPP report summarizes their research findings:

• Over half of the states have faced problems with their FY2009 budgets.
• The 29 states in which revenues were expected to fall short of the amount needed to support current services in fiscal year 2009 are Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin. In addition, the District of Columbia closed a shortfall in fiscal year 2009. The budget gaps totaled $47.6 to $49.2 billion, averaging 9.3 percent to 9.7 percent of these states' general fund budgets. (See Table 1.) California — the nation's largest state — faced the largest budget gap. The shortfalls that states other than California faced averaged 6.2 percent to 6.7 percent of these states' general fund budgets.
• Analysts in three other states — Missouri, Texas, and Washington — are projecting budget gaps a little further down the road, in FY2010 and beyond.

This brings the total number of states identified as facing budget gaps to 32 — close to two-thirds of all states. Most states have addressed the FY2009 budget gaps identified here. However, new budget gaps in these and other states are likely to develop as state revenue forecasts are updated during the year.

The federal minimum wage will increase to $6.55 per hour today, the second bump that is part of a law passed last year to increase the wage to $7.25 by next summer (see this story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution). As the AJC correctly points out, the increase will have a significant impact in Georgia, but for more than half the states, it won't do much because the federal government is woefully behind the curve:

Yet in 30 states, Thursday's change is a yawner: They already have higher wage floors — the highest being California and Massachusetts at $8 an hour and Washington at $8.07 an hour.

In Georgia, the new floor matters: About 210,000 Georgians work for the minimum wage, according to a 2006 study by the Georgia Policy and Budget Institute. About 461,000 others, while making a little more than the minimum, would also likely get a boost because of the change, the GPBI said.

For a full-time worker, Thursday's $28-a-week raise would mean a year's pay of $13,624. That is below the official poverty line for a family of three — and about one-third of the Georgians affected by the change are parents, according to the GPBI.

Nationally, it is estimated that 2.1 million workers will receive a long-overdue pay increase today, but for a family of three, a minimum wage earner will still be well below the federal poverty line.

Related Articles:
OurFuture.org: The Next Minimum Wage Fight
Jonathan Tasani: The Minimum Wage: A Disgrace and a Scandal
EPI: Guide to the Minimum Wage

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has once again released an analysis of state government budget health, and the news continues to deteriorate. In their lastest analysis, they rank all 50 states according to changes in three main economic indicators - employment, poverty, and housing foreclosures. The report finds:

States across the country have projected budget shortfalls totaling at least $48 billion for 2009. To meet their balanced budget requirements, they are being forced to raise taxes and/or cut expenditures — both of which reduce overall demand and thereby weaken the impact of the recent federal stimulus package. Federal fiscal relief would limit the need for such actions.

CBPP argues pretty convincingly that because the states that are showing the most economic problems are the same ones that are having budget issues, fiscal relief for state budgets would go a long way to improving econonmic conditions. Good stuff. Maybe Congress should consider this, huh?

CBPP: ECONOMIC DATA CAN BE USED TO TARGET STATE FISCAL RELIEF EFFECTIVELY

Happy Fourth of July!
Just wanted to let our loyal BudgetBlog readers know we're going on a short hiatus next week. With Congress heading out of town for a short summer recess and the upcoming Fourth of July holiday next week, the Fiscal Policy team is heading out of town in order to escape the heat for some well-deserved vacation. This means, though, that the BudgetBlog will be dormant next week.

But don't despair. Craig and I will return in one short week on July 7 to continue to bring you all the news, gossip, information, and analysis on federal fiscal policy you've come to expect.

Hope everyone has a safe and festive Independence Day next week - be careful with those fireworks.

The state of state budgets continues to deteriorate around the country. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released another update yesterday to their increasingly disturbing analysis, which now shows that 31 states are anticipating budget problems in 2009, with 27 projecting a budget shortfall. We continue to reiterate that this is pretty bad news as state budgets are far less flexible than the federal budget and usually are legally prohibited from running a deficit. From the CBPP update:

31 states anticipate budget problems. Of those:

• 27 states and the District of Columbia faced or are facing $47 billion in combined '09 budget shortfalls. Arkansas and Michigan join this list.
  
• 2 states face '09 deficits, but have released no further information. (Connecticut joins this list. Louisiana and Michigan leave.)
  
• 2 other states project budget gaps for 2010 and beyond. (Connecticut leaves this list.)