Government has a responsibility to manage public resources to ensure it can deliver essential services today and in the future. In practice, states must maintain sustainable fiscal practices and be transparent about their long-term financial outlook. The Truth and Integrity in State Budgeting initiative (TISB) helps states do exactly that by providing policymakers, researchers, students, and engaged citizens with the tools to understand and improve their state's fiscal foundation. 

TISB uses a cutting-edge research framework to grade all 50 states on six core categories of fiscal responsibility: 

• Budgetary Controls
• Liability Management
• Capital Asset Administration
• Risk Monitoring
• Fiscal Resilience
• Locality Support

Focusing on multi-year trends, TISB promotes transparency, fiscal resilience, and sustainability while addressing growing fiscal pressures, including extreme weather, federal policy changes, economic uncertainty, and infrastructure deficiencies.

The CUNY Institute for State and Local Governance (ISLG) serves as the core research partner, leading data collection, analysis, and production.

New report cards will be released in November 2026.

Building on a Record of Impact 

When the Volcker Alliance launched the Truth and Integrity in State Budgeting initiative in 2014, the project's centerpiece was a comprehensive report that graded and analyzed the budget practices of all 50 states.

• Truth and Integrity in State Budgeting: What Is the Reality?, covered fiscal 2015-2017.
• Truth and Integrity in State Budgeting: Preventing the Next Fiscal Crisis, graded state budgets in fiscal 2016-2018.
• Truth and Integrity in State Budgeting: The Balancing Act assessed state budgets in fiscal 2017-2019.
• Truth and Integrity in State Budgeting: Preparing for the Storm analyzed actions from fiscal 2015 through 2019.

Previous report cards are available through this interactive map, which also includes information about each state’s budget process.

TIGF