The Spending Cap Needs Some Repair

As currently written, the state’s spending cap rules mean that public investment will inevitably ratchet down with each successive recession, that “catching up” after a recession with funding that the state’s needs is more difficult, and that the state has greater incentives to borrow to pay for on-going services and forgo available federal funds. This brief discusses ways to repair the state’s spending cap, one of the most restrictive in the nation.