States' Use of Sustainable Budgeting Tools

Editor’s note: This page was updated on May 22, 2024, and again on Dec. 6, 2024, to indicate that Colorado produced a budget stress test in November 2022, making it one of just nine states to have published both types of studies at the time this research was first published. Visit Pew’s long-term budget assessment and budget stress test database for an up-to-date inventory of states that use these analytical tools.

When state leaders have data and analysis that illuminate their states’ long-term risks and outlooks, they are better able to ensure that their budgets stay on a sustainable path. As part of its 2023 report “Tools for Sustainable State Budgeting,” The Pew Charitable Trusts produced fact sheets on each state that, since the start of 2018, has published one or both of two tools that provide the information policymakers need:

• Long-term budget assessments analyze multiyear revenue and spending projections to show whether and why states may face chronic deficits.
• Budget stress tests gauge states’ preparedness for temporary shortfalls that would result from future economic downturns.

These fact sheets describe the strengths of each state’s analyses, ways in which those analyses have informed policymakers’ decisions, and opportunities to improve.