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Responsible state fiscal policy requires more than just balancing the current year’s budget. It must also include ensuring that the budget is on a sustainable path. Otherwise, policymakers cannot have the lasting impact they hope for. This risk is especially high in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Record budget surpluses, driven largely by federal pandemic aid, empowered states to adopt historically large tax cuts and spending increases from 2021 to 2023.
State leaders must be able to assess whether their decisions will be affordable over the long term or will jeopardize their ability to solve state problems or even sustain programs and services in the future. Unfortunately, the nature of state budget processes discourages such long-term thinking. State policymakers devote much of their time to developing, enacting, and implementing annual or biennial budgets, a prime opportunity to achieve immediate policy goals.
One key strategy for changing this short-term focus is for states to use long-term budget assessments and budget stress tests to regularly measure risks, anticipate potential shortfalls, and identify ways to address impending challenges. Long-term budget assessments project revenue and spending several years into the future, and stress tests estimate the size of temporary budget shortfalls that would result from recessions or other economic events and gauge whether states are prepared for these events.
Internet: <https://www.pewtrusts.org> (adapted).
Considering the ideas conveyed in the previous text, as well as its linguistic aspects, judge the following items.
It is correct to conclude from the text that long-term budget assessments and stress tests are two crucial tools for states that seek to establish more than a short-term approach to their budgets.
O texto apresenta avaliações de longo prazo e testes de estresse como estratégia para superar o foco de curto prazo.
O último parágrafo apresenta essas duas ferramentas como estratégia-chave para mudar o foco de curto prazo, medindo riscos e antecipando déficits. A conclusão do item é compatível com o texto.
Análise das alternativas
A) Correta: o texto as apresenta como instrumentos para ir além do curto prazo. B) Errada: contradiria a ideia central do último parágrafo.
Referência: Cebraspe; Interpretação de texto em inglês.
Resolução comentada do VaiConcursos.