After rivers of federal aid helped keep state and municipal governments afloat during the deadly pandemic, there are looming threats to states’ long-term fiscal stability, analysts told the National Press Foundation’s Statehouse Reporting fellows in Madison, Wisconsin.

Melissa Maynard, senior officer at Pew Charitable Trusts Fiscal 50 project, and Liz Farmer, co-host of the “Public Money Pod,” highlighted a transition away from billions of dollars in pandemic-related relief, expected changes in consumer spending patterns and general economic uncertainty as major challenges for government fiscal officers.

More than $800 billion in federal pandemic assistance flowed to the states, the analysts said.

States also are grappling with a deepening labor shortage, forcing government officials to find new ways to keep public workers on the job to ensure trash is picked up, prisons are operating and streets are paved.

During the uncertain times, Maynard and Farmer urged the fellows to bring the numbers to life by humanizing their reporting on issues ranging from workforce shortages to threatened public works projects.

Tracking the numbers goes beyond the politics and to the heart of what matters to taxpayers, the analysts said.

Learn more by reviewing their slides at the right.

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