State Economic Watch

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear says that the first four months of 2026 saw the largest economic investment in the state’s history. He cites significant investment in battery production facilities, among other investments, from Ford, AESC, Shelbyville Battery Manufacturing, and Toyota. Here's a link to the press release from the Governor's office, which also touts rating upgrades by Moody's, S&P and Fitch. 

A new study by the Washington Roundtable looks at the twin issues of cost of living and affordability in Washington State. The report finds that the state is the fifth most expensive place to live in the US behind California, DC, New Jersey, and Hawaii. Using the US BEA’s Regional Price Parities, the report notes that the state had an RPP score of 108.6 (US index level is 100) in 2023 compared to 102.5 in 2013, and that during this ten year period, the state’s RPP score increased faster than that of any other state. 

A new report from the Rhode Island Public Expenditures Council finds that the state’s economic growth falls short of the US average on several measures. The report, Rhode Island 2026 Economic Prosperity Scorecard , uses publicly available data on state GDP, income and cost of living to show that Rhode Island’s GDP growth is lagging both that of its neighboring New England states and of the U.S as a whole. The study’s authors attribute some of this underperformance to the high percentage of the state’s GDP that is generated by health and education, which they consider to be low productivity sectors. The study also finds that while Rhode Island’s personal income measures put it in the top half of all states, the state’s relatively high cost of living drops its real personal income ranking to the bottom third of states.

The Florida Consumer Sentiment Index , published by the University of Florida’s Survey Research Center, declined for the second consecutive month in April. The index fell to 74.6 in April from 78.1 in March, but that's still better than the 72 level reported for April 2025. For context, the recent peak for this index was 79.3 in February 2026. The internals of the survey are more interesting than the top line, wth big disparities in age and income reported. For example the sentiment measure for the age 60 and over cohort is 81.9, while for those under 60 it's 68.7. Similarly, those with incomes of $50K and above report a 80.2 sentiment index, while for those with income under $50K, it’s 58.5. Further, the April 2026 sentiment indexes for the 60+ and $50K+ groups were higher than a year ago, but for the under 60 and under $50K groups, they were lower. The “personal financial situation now compared to a year ago” question produced the same response pattern. It’s important to note...

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s State Coincident Indexes remained in a lackluster range in February. According to today’s release by the Philadelphia Fed, the three-month diffusion index increased slightly to 54 from a revised 50 in January. The three-month index has been stuck in a tepid range since November. The more volatile one-month diffusion index rose to 36 in February from a revised 22 in January. In February, Connecticut joined the group of states posting the most significant three-month declines, along with Montana and West Virginia, while California, Arizona, and Indiana posted the largest increases. The exhibit below is reproduced from the press release.

This lengthy article posted by Governing is well worth spending some time on. It’s a deep dive into the conversion of farmland in California’s Central Valley to renewable energy generation. Farmers in the Central Valley are being forced to take portions of their farmland out of production because of water use restrictions. In response, the proposed Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan will convert some of this fallowed land to utility-scale solar production. The article provides a good historical background and goes into some detail about transmission and other challenges facing the project.