Budget and Financial Management
Data Snapshot
In 2006, Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act — with the support of USPS — to address the growing OPEB liabilities. This act laid out a 10-year payment plan for USPS to prefund most of its OPEB liabilities, with annual contributions of approximately $5.5 billion.
Given the healthy state of USPS’s pension funds and a history of stable revenues, prefunding OPEB obligations seemed a feasible goal. Unfortunately, the Great Recession and sluggish revenues afterward severely weakened the Postal Service’s ability to make payments while remaining solvent.
After making full contributions through 2010, USPS defaulted on all subsequent payments (Schuyler 2016).
Figure 1 (left) shows USPS’s revenues and expenses from 1972 to 2015. Notably, revenues and expenses were relatively stable from 1972 to 2006. After the prefunding requirement mandate in 2006, expenses became volatile and regularly exceeded revenues.
Notable Research
Fiscal Transparency and Accessibility in the Southern States
This report takes a deep dive into state fiscal transparency practices in the South. It describes the importance of transparency, emphasizies best practices and highlights areas for improvement. The report is part of CSLF’s Balancing the Budget in the Southern States series and draws on earlier research gathered for the Volcker Alliance’s Truth and Integrity in Government Finance project.
Age-Based Homestead Exemption Estimate Calculator (2018)
This brief explains how government officials and citizens can use the Excel-based calculator to roughly estimate revenue effects of new or expanded age-based homestead exemptions for each county and school district in Georgia. This brief and calculator expand on a 2016 CSLF publication. Authors: H. Spencer Banzhaf & Per Johnson.
