Decades of tax cuts and government "rollbacks" have meant that most states' public sectors, including state colleges and universities, have been systematically underfunded. The COVID-19 crisis has brought this underfunding into sharper focus, as hospitals and public health systems strain under the pressure of budget shortfalls. State sector higher education systems, both those with affiliated medical schools and hospitals and those without, are now grappling to survive on state budgets allocations that are critically dependent on state and local sales and income taxes. LBJ's James Galbraith joined fellow panelists in this webinar discussing possible alternatives to austerity, in which already damaged economies will be further hurt by collapsing public sectors.
