Special Briefing: America’s Growth Regions

The US economy’s extraordinary recovery since the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic has continued into the fall of 2025, with inflation retreating and the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates to keep jobs and investment humming along. Our expert panel will discuss where the economy is growing fastest—and less fast—and what this means for state and local budgets and finances.

Our panel of experts will include Rochester (Minnesota) Mayor Kim Norton, Georgia State Economist Robert Buschman, Fitch Ratings head of US State ratings Eric Kim, and PIMCO Senior Vice President Tom Schuette.

Moderated by William Glasgall, Volcker Alliance senior director, public finance and Penn IUR fellow, and Susan Wachter, co-director of Penn IUR, this briefing is the fifty-fifth in a series of sixty-minute online conversations featuring experts from the national research networks of the Volcker Alliance and Penn IUR, along with other leading academics, economists, and federal, state, and local leaders. 

Special Briefings are made possible by the Volcker Alliance and members of the Penn IUR Advisory Board.

Recordings of the entire Special Briefings series are available on the Volcker Alliance website: SPECIAL BRIEFING SERIES ARCHIVE.

Be sure to subscribe to the Special Briefing podcast, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, iHeart Radio and more.

Also, be sure to subscribe to the Volcker Alliance newsletter and Penn IUR newsletter.

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ROCHESTER, MINNESOTA MAYOR AND PANEL OF ECONOMIC EXPERTS DISCUSS AMERICA'S HOT ZONES

Volcker Alliance Special Briefing Panel Examines America's Areas of Rapid Economic Growth - And Where State and Local Budgets are Headed

The US economy’s extraordinary recovery since the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic has continued into the fall of 2025, with inflation retreating and the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates to keep jobs and investment humming along.

Rochester, Minnesota Mayor Kim Norton emphasized the urgency in which localities need to access state and federal funds, especially as job growth and housing demand continue to rise: “We’ve been really focused on rebuilding our infrastructure, not only streetscapes and looking at social equity, but also looking at the infrastructure underground as we’re a growing city.” Mayor Norton added “We were very pleased that money came directly to the cities and local jurisdictions, so we didn’t have to go through a lot of time to get it through the state. It was very beneficial to get that money into our communities quickly, starting with ARPA and then the CARES Act funds.” 

Georgia State Economist Bob Buschman discussed Georgia’s fiscal growth in recent years: “Since the last quarter before the pandemic, Q4 2019, Georgia real GDP growth has run 2.4% per year, on average, slightly better than the 2.3% average for the nation. And though we had our own soft landing in the first half of 2023, we’re up 3.5% since then, compared to 3% for the nation. Job growth has also outpaced the nation for most of the expansion.” Buschman also noted that “with these revenue gains we’ve increased baseline spending to keep up with needs, including healthy pay increases for educators and for all state employees.”

“As important and transformational as the pandemic was in many ways, when it comes to the underlying trajectory of regional economic trends, it didn’t seem to change all that much,” said Eric Kim, head of US State ratings at Fitch Ratings. “Growth coming out of the pandemic has been very robust nationally, so strong in fact that it beats expectations month after month, quarter after quarter, year after year. I think most economists were anticipating a recession for about two years before finally giving up and accepting that the economic growth was simply going to continue, even with the Federal Reserve ratcheting up interest rates above 5%.”

When asked about the municipal market outlook, PIMCO Senior Vice President Tom Schuette said, “We definitely think it’s a great time to be a muni investor. 2024 has been a great year in terms of supply, I think we’ve had $40 billion monthly new issue calendars for six of the last seven months. So far in 2024 I think we’ve already outpaced total issuance from 2023 and 2022, with September and October being exceptionally strong months in terms of governments issuing new debt.” Continuing with the optimistic perspective, Schuette added: “I think in 20-plus years doing this at a rating agency and also on the buy side, I would argue that I’ve never seen the public sector so well-prepared for any turbulence or volatility on the revenue or expenditure side as they are right now.”

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Kim Norton became the first woman Mayor of Rochester, Minnesota in 2018 and took office on January 8, 2019. Most recently, Kim won a Bush Fellowship which allowed her to complete a master’s degree at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs focused on leadership and energy policy. This work allowed her to investigate communities noted for their sustainability and livability.

Prior to her Fellowship, Kim served in the Minnesota House of Representatives, representing District 25B, consisting mostly of the northern portion of the city of Rochester in Olmsted County in the southeastern part of the state. During her ten years as a legislator, Kim introduced many pieces of significant legislation including the Destination Medical Center (DMC) economic development project aimed at positioning Rochester as a premier location for healthcare. Before serving on the state legislature, Kim served eight years, including one as board chair, of the Rochester Public School Board.

Kim participated in the Women in Power Executive Education program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School and the Rockwood Leadership Institute. She continues to serve on many local and state nonprofit boards (The Arc, Fresh Energy, KSMQ, Minnesota Children’s Museum Rochester, and Healthy Communities Collaborative) and is a member of the Greater Rochester Rotary Club. Kim is married to Randy Stone, the mother of four grown children and a stepson. She is grandmother to Zoe and Henry. She spends her personal time traveling and reading and has a special fondness for kayaking. 

Robert Buschman serves as the State Economist for the State of Georgia. Previously, he was Interim Director of the Public Finance Research Cluster (PFRC), associate director for FRC, and a senior research associate with the Fiscal Research Center (FRC) and the Center for State and Local Finance. He was also FRC’s key contact for fiscal note analyses of proposed Georgia revenue legislation. His research interests include corporate and personal taxation, growth and equity effects of tax reform, state and local fiscal policy, and other topics. He also has taught Macroeconomics, Principles of and Intermediate, at Georgia State University. Prior to joining the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Buschman worked for several years in corporate banking and corporate financial management. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Duke University, an MBA in finance from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University, and a master’s degree and a doctorate in economics from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. 

Eric Kim is a Senior Director in Fitch Ratings’ U.S. public finance department and head of the U.S. states rating team.  He is based in New York and is a member of the tax-supported ratings group, focusing on state and local government credits in the U.S.    

Eric joined Fitch in March 2007, and before joining the tax-supported group he also worked in Fitch’s education and non-profit institutions group.    Prior to joining Fitch Eric was chief of staff for the first deputy commissioner at the New York City (NYC) Taxi and Limousine Commission.  He also worked as a project manager at the Lower Manhattan Borough Commissioner’s Office in the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT).  Eric began his career as a NYC Urban Fellow, providing research and analytical support in the commissioner’s office at the DOT.    

Eric was a member of the Bond Buyer’s 2016 inaugural class of Rising Stars in the municipal finance industry and has spoken at national and regional conferences on topics ranging from infrastructure investment to Medicaid. Eric earned a BA from Brown University and an MPA with a public finance specialization from the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University.  Eric is also a member of the Municipal Analysts Group of New York and the National Federation of Municipal Analysts.    

Mr. Tom Schuette is a senior vice president and head of the investment grade credit research team for PIMCO Municipals and is based in the Austin office. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2021, he was co-head of the investment research and strategy department at Gurtin Municipal Bond Management, a PIMCO company. Previously, he was a lead US Public Finance analyst at Moody's Investors Service, where he led the analysis of a broad range of municipal sectors nationwide and participated in developing the firm’s rating methodologies. Prior to this, he served in finance and policy roles within the public sector, as well as in a research role assessing opportunities for public-private partnerships. He has 19 years of investment experience and holds a master’s degree in public affairs from The University of Texas at Austin. He received an undergraduate degree from Truman State University.