By Robert Montoya, includes “School district debts in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio are alarmingly high at more than $7 billion. When you add these to the cities’ debts and other underlying governments, the combined debt each taxpayer must pay is $69,600. Change will only come when ‘citizen advocates’ get involved.”
 

Op-ed by U.S. Representative Josh Gottheimer (NJ), includes “The usual set of naysayers are trying to undermine our effort to reinstate the state and local tax deduction — known as SALT — by claiming it’s just a giveaway to the wealthiest Americans. But anyone who actually lives here in Jersey knows that the $10,000 SALT cap imposed by the Red States back in 2017 hit scores of middle class families hard — who are already struggling with high costs.”

By Laura Davison, includes “Residents of New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut will face the highest tax burdens over a lifetime, according to a new study.”

By Angela Couloumbis, Joseph DiStefano and Craig McCoy, includes “… The documents lay bare the scope of the probe and reveal that prosecutors and the FBI are investigating possible “honest services” fraud and wire fraud. Under a key 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, federal prosecutors would need proof of illegal payments to charge state officials with the crime of not providing honest service, criminal-law experts say.”

By Caleb Pehrne, includes “The Tennessee comptroller's office is re-launching a statewide dashboard giving you a look inside county finances. The state dashboard shows most county governments in our region have about $1,000 of debt per person, a little higher than the state average. …"
 

By Mary Williams Walsh, includes “The Pennsylvania teachers’ retirement fund put more than half its assets into risky alternative investments. The math didn’t work out, spurring an investigation. ” 

By David Sirota, includes “Are taxpayers and retirees willing to give billions of dollars to financial firms in exchange for the potentially false perception of financial stability? ”

By Christian Britschgi, includes “… Perhaps as intended, the checks are forcing Newsom's Republican opponents … to perform some awkward political contortions as they try to criticize the governor without coming out against free money..”

Bloomberg story by Shruti Singh and Amanda Albright, includes “… In a surprise to some, these funds can’t be used for debt payments … For states such as Illinois that want to use the money for debt repayment, the large amount of federal aid still gives them ‘ample’ opportunity to do what investors want to improve creditworthiness, said Ty Schoback "

By Adam Andrzejewski, includes “Being a lifeguard isn’t easy, but in Los Angeles it can be lucrative. Auditors at OpenTheBooks.com found 82 county lifeguards earning at least $200,000 including benefits and seven making between $300,000 and $392,000. … After 30 years of service, they can retire as young as 55 on 79% of their pay.”