When the U.S. lost its last AAA credit rating earlier this month, a nonprofit group that tracks government spending wasn't surprised. Truth in Accounting, which pushes for financial transparency across all levels of government, had already given the federal government its own grade: F.

For city leaders, the internal report one year ago was startling: Pittsburgh’s finances, despite the glowing claims of some elected officials, were on the brink of disaster.

Although the state of Connecticut is sitting on a massive accumulative state pension debt of some $35 billion, most of the chatter in our media concerns the state’s biennial “surplus.”

Dallas’s $5 billion budget and $8.2 billion debt demand City Council members with the integrity and skill to steward taxpayer dollars responsibly. Yet a litany of financial mismanagement—from Council Member Chad West’s ethics probe to a $5.7 million Fair Park discrepancy, the city manager’s admission of misspent funds, and now the $29 million Stemmons building debacle—reveals a City Hall failing its residents. With taxpayers already burdened by rising debt, Dallas deserves leaders who prioritize the public good, not personal or political gain.

Fleischer addressed a statement from the public finance watchdog group Truth in Accounting, which cited the Montclair schools’ audit report advising of a $23.9 million “unrestricted” deficit for the year ending June 30, 2024 as a concern.

“They have pushed these costs into the future,” Sheila Weinberg, founder and CEO of the national public finance watchdog group, told Montclair Local. “You can think of it as your credit. This is how much they put on the taxpayers’ credit card that they’ll have to pay off in the future.”

While the federal government reports a national debt nearing $37 trillion, one budget watchdog says the figure is actually much higher: $158.6 trillion, amounting to $974,000 for each federal taxpayer.

Truth in Accounting, a nonprofit budget accountability group that emphasizes a different approach to government accounting, released those figures, arguing that they more accurately represent the fiscal situation of the federal government.

Public Affairs’ Jeff Berkowitz sits down for a conversation with Sheila Weinberg, Founder and CEO of “Truth in Accounting,” since 2002 and whose mission is to compel governments to produce financial reports that are understandable, reliable, transparent and correct. Sheila Weinberg received her Certified Public Accountant, also known as a CPA, credential in 1981, along with a Bachelor of Accounting degree from the University of Denver, which she attended on an academic scholarship. Ms. Weinberg’s research initiatives include “The Truth about Balanced Budgets, a Fifty State Study,” the Financial State of the States and the Financial State of the Union.

Public Affairs’ Jeff Berkowitz sits down for a conversation with Sheila Weinberg, Founder and CEO of “Truth in Accounting,” since 2002 and whose mission  is to compel governments to produce financial reports that are understandable, reliable, transparent and correct.  

But that only covers Chicago’s debts. Those same taxpayers would need to contribute an additional $37,000 to pay down the state’s existing debts, according to Truth in Accounting’s most recent 2024 State of the States report.

The city is in a $5 billion pension hole, and with equity markets struggling in the Donald Trump era, the General Fund will have to spend more to cover that shortfall. When municipal watchdog group Truth in Accounting gave the city a D rating for fiscal mismanagement, it wasn’t short for DUUUUUU-val.