Several organizations provide free access to research and databases related to budgeting, financial management, and fiscal policies across all levels of government in the United States - from federal, to state, and local. Other sources provide data on the public finances, fiscal institutions and budget rules, and intergovernmental fiscal systems in different countries. Check out the online resources below.
National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO)
NASBO provides access to reports and data on state budgeting and finance including the Fiscal Survey of the States, State Expenditure Report, Budget Processes in the States, Capital Budgeting, and Summaries of Proposed and Enacted Budget, etc.
National Conference of State Legislatures (NCLS)
NCLS provides access to reports and data on state budgeting and finance including the ARPA Evidence-Based Investments Database, Pension and Retirement Legislation Database, State Tax Actions Database, State Tax Incentive Evaluations Database, etc.
Pew provides access to reports and data on state and local budgeting and finance through projects such as State Fiscal Policy, State Fiscal Health, Public Sector Retirement Systems, etc. Previously, Pew conducted research on city fiscal issues through its American Cities Project.
The Urban Institute’s State and Local Finance Initiative provides access to several reports, policy briefs, and data including the State Fiscal Briefs, State and Local Finance Data: Exploring the Census of Governments, State Economic Monitor, and State and Local Backgrounders, etc.
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
The Lincoln Institute provides access to local finance databases (Fiscally Standardized Cities) and property tax systems (the Significant Features of the Property Tax database offers comprehensive details about the property tax systems in all 50 states).
This joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution conducts analyses of different federal tax issues, including providing free access to model estimates of tax proposals and bills and a statistics database containing information on various types of federal and state taxes.
IMF provides access to government finance statistics through the Government Finance Statistics Database, Quarterly Public Sector Debt Statistics, and Public Sector Balance Sheet Database. IMF’s Fiscal Rules Dataset provides information on fiscal rules across 106 countries since 1985.
Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA)
GFOA’s Fiscal First Aid Resource Center describes best practices in managing fiscal crisis, especially in local governments. It also provides free access to policy briefs and reports on different budgeting and financial management topics.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
The Revenue Statistics database offers comprehensive information on tax and other government revenues for all OECD countries. Data is available from 1975 onwards. OECD also has datasets on fiscal decentralization and local tax autonomy.