Eighty percent of Americans live in urban areas, and for them, 2026 is likely to be a year of immense change as the federal government quickens the pace of trillions of dollars in funding cuts to cities, counties, and states expected over the next decade. Moderated by William Glasgall, Volcker Alliance Public Finance Adviser and Penn IUR Fellow, and Susan Wachter, Co-Director of the Penn Institute for Urban Research and Wharton Professor of Real Estate and Professor of Finance, our expert panel from government and Wall Street will dissect how urban America and its leaders will cope with this new brand of fiscal federalism. Speakers include: • Janet Cowell, Mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina • Fitzroy Lee, Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Chief Economist, Office of the Chief Financial Officer, District of Columbia • Sarah Parker, Senior Research and Strategy Officer for Infrastructure, Environmental and Economic Analysis, New York City's Independent Budget Office (IBO) • Nicholas Samuels, Senior Vice President, US Public Finance at Moody's Ratings and • Matthew Stitt, Managing Director, PFM Group Consulting LLC. NOTABLE QUOTES Cowell: “We feel optimistic that we're a growing community with a number of levers and ways we can accommodate that growth, good finances, but the risk does become that federal relationship and how they look at cities and fund cities. Parker: “The relationship of a city and a state is becoming even more crucial, and even that dynamic has shifted as the relationship between the federal government and states and cities has really become much more tenuous. […] Our partnerships with Albany, both Governor Hochul and the state legislature, are more important than ever.” Lee: “As the nation's capital, of course, we host a disproportionate amount of federal jobs. And so the federal workforce downsizing presents the biggest challenge to the district's economy for the year ahead.” Lee: “[The city] budget anticipated the fiscal impact of the federal workforce reduction and incorporated a revenue reduction of about $300 million per year. That's about 3% of the district's $11 billion local source revenue.” Stitt: “In regard to the funding challenges, many cities and/or counties are preparing for how to maintain service delivery despite federal cuts. This is partially being reflected in budgeting five-year plans/forecast by some cities placing more money into their reserves.” Samuels: In 3 of the 10 largest U.S. Cities, the combination of rent and childcare, transportation, and taxes consume more than 60% of household income. So, those kinds of rising living costs […] dampen consumer spending, they reduce tax revenues, they can influence migration patterns and workforce availability.” Parker: “The longer term [issue] is how a government itself addresses its own adaptation needs relative to its physical climate risk.” Cowell: “In North Carolina and in many states in the South, the State General Assembly has a lot of authority and power, and they have taken away a number of revenue sources for local government […] They are setting the rules, and it definitely impacts how we do our job as mayors.”