Compared to a year earlier, unemployment rates were down in 342 of the 372 metropolitan areas in April 2012, according to a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) press release. Other highlights of the latest BLS release: El Centro, California and Yuma, Arizona...
Month: May 2012
Improving Consumer Finances Could Boost State and Local Economies
State and local governments are not alone in their fiscal stress, which can have a reciprocal cause-and-effect relationship with consumer or household finances. With that in mind, it comes as little surprise that Nevada, a state that has been particularly plagued by...
The Financial Future of Detroit: Is the Motor City in Drive, Neutral or Reverse?
Budget Talks Continue as Detroit Tries to Untangle its Fiscal Crisis Detroit’s City Council is preparing to move ahead with its 2012-13 budget, even as the city awaits a decision about the legality of its consent agreement with the State, according to a Detroit...
Rising Student-Teacher Ratio: Not Necessarily a Simple Equation
Quality public education: (Most) everyone wants it, yet there is no clear cut, agreed-upon roadmap to achieve it - particularly as public school districts around the country have felt the sting of state funding cuts and shrinking local tax bases.In recent years,...
U.S. Immigration Trends: Numbers Continue to Rise
by guest contributor, Peter Fugiel, Ph.D. Legal Immigration Rate Held Steady during the Recession U.S. population to reach 420 million mid-century; 600 million possible by 2100? It is seldom that the sheer metrics of a trend are too big to comprehend. While everyone...
Florida Municipal Loan Council Launches Investor Relations Portal
The Florida Municipal Loan Council (FMLC), administered by the Florida League of Cities, is a pooled loan program for local government borrowers of all sizes. Established in 1998 as a way to help member entities finance or refinance projects, the FMLC has issued more...
Texas Ranks as Top State for Doing Business – Again!
Corporate executives rank Texas as the top state for doing business, according to a recently released report by Chief Executives. The 2012 report is based on a survey of 650 business leaders. Texas gets the thumbs-up for its business-friendly tax, regulatory...