~by Dr. Larry DeBoer November 29, 2021   What will be the effect of the COVID recession on the property taxes that fund Indiana local governments? I’ve been thinking and writing about the possibilities for a year and a half. Now we have enough data to answer that question. No spoilers, though. Let’s consider what …

~by Dr. Larry DeBoer October 20, 2021   Americans are having fewer children. Reports this past summer showed that the birth rate dropped in 2020, to 56 births per 1,000 women age 15 to 44. Only 5.6 percent of women in their child-bearing years had babies. Early indications for 2021 showed a further decline. Birth …

~by Dr. Larry DeBoer September 22, 2021   Where is our economy going? Let’s ask some folks whose job it is to forecast the future of the U.S. economy. How about looking at three forecasts – one from government economists, one from academic economists, and one from business economists. The Congressional Budget Office updated its …

~by Dr. Larry DeBoer August 19, 2021   The National Bureau of Economic Research is our quasi-official umpire of recessions and expansions. Last year it marked the peak of the last decade’s expansion as February 2020.  In July it marked the trough—the economy’s low point—as April 2020. That made the pandemic recession the shortest but …

~by Dr. Larry DeBoer July 22, 2021     Happy belated New Year, everyone! I mean the Indiana Fiscal New Year 2022, which started on July 1. The State Budget Agency celebrates the event every summer with a budget closeout, looking back at the year just ended and ahead to the next biennium. This time, …

~by Dr. Larry DeBoer       We’ve got an inflation problem. What should we do about it? That depends on what kind of inflation problem we’ve got. In May the consumer price index was 4.9% higher than it was 12 months before. The last time we saw an inflation rate that high was July …

~by Dr. Larry DeBoer       On April 15, toward the end of the 2021 session of the Indiana General Assembly, the State Budget Committee heard the revised revenue forecast. It was $2.4 billion more than the initial forecast from December 16. That’s “billions,” with a “b”. It was a forecast for the ages. …

~by Dr. Larry DeBoer Suppose you’ve been prevented from buying things for a year, or maybe a decade. Now the dishwasher is on the fritz, the tires are nearly bald, and the springs on the couch have sprung.  Or, you’ve not been to a restaurant or concert or ballgame—or anywhere—for all that time. Then the …

When you’re looking to make data-driven decisions for local government financing, don’t overlook a great tool from the Purdue Center for Regional Development (PCRD): Rural Indiana Stats. This site features a capacity-cost index, calculated by Dr. Larry DeBoer, that helps everyone from local residents to local elected officials understand what resources are available to them …

~by Dr. Larry DeBoer, Purdue University Tax season is coming up. This year, federal income taxes are due on May 17th. Indiana’s state and local income taxes are due on April 15th. The first installment of the property tax is due on May 10. You pay your motor vehicle excise tax with your vehicle registration …