New report: State tax collections down 16.6%

More bad news for state tax revenues. As reported by Michael Cooper in the New York Times: "Total state tax collections from April through June dropped by a record 16.6 percent compared with the same period a year earlier, according to a report to be released Thursday by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York. The report found that total state tax collections were down by $63 billion for the year ended in June, which is roughly twice the amount of money that the states had received in fiscal relief through the stimulus program up to that point."

Obama Sets Sights on Urban Renewal

Fine article today in the Washington Post by Michael A. Fletcher on President Obama's urban agenda. Missing from the story is how counties are just as vital to urban renewal as cities. NACo's Large Urban County Caucus (LUCC), who met recently in Allegheny County, Pa. prior to the G-20 meetings in Pittsburgh, are focusing on three initiatives this year: health care reform, building urban communities, and improving government operations. More information is available on the LUCC page of the NACo Web site.