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Congress okâ??d $26 billion to help states make payrolls last week. How bad is it? The Daily Beast crunches the numbers of all 50 states to find who's in the deepest debtâ??and it isn't who you think.
Governors across the nation breathed a collective sigh of relief last week when Congress passed a $26 billion stimulus bill to help states maintain jobs. Even the most bailout-bashing state executives have proven only too happy to take federal largesse to ease their fiscal problems.
And almost universally, there are problems. While not every state is legally bound to meet budget shortfallsâ??and avoid carrying deficits year-over-yearâ??virtually every state legislature is contemplating cuts, from arts to social-welfare programs. Most are falling short.
As in personal finance, debt is the pitfall that can come back to haunt states trying to meet their financial obligations. With that in mind, The Daily Beast ranked each state in order of its debt-to-GDP ratioâ??the higher the ratio, the more likely a state will remain mired in debt.
The debt numbers here are from the U.S. Census and usgovernmentspending.com, which extrapolates Census data based on past state debt increases or decreases to estimate current debt levels. Future deficit levels are based on an independent analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which uses estimates of next yearâ??s baseline budget spending compared to expected revenue. State GDP numbers are not yet available for 2009 from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, but were adjusted from 2008 levels by the same minuscule percentage decrease in the estimated GDP for the entire country from 2008 to 2009.
Once tabulated, itâ??s clear that debt is far from a Washington problem, and it belongs to both parties, with â??redâ? and â??blueâ? states, in terms of presidential choice and current governor and legislature, counted among the worst offenders. Where does your state rank? Click here.
How does your state fare in our ranking of the indebtedness of all 50 states? Click here for our rankings, from worst to first.
Ranking by Clark Merrefield
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If we could just halt the entitlement programs for the elderly, maybe this country would be off the hook.
If we could just halt the entitlement programs for the military and agriculture (and don't forget to kill the oil depletion allowance), we'd have enough to fix these state budgets. Of course, if your goal is to kill old people, by all means get rid of Social Security and Medicare.
Oil and gas tax breaks amount to more than $2 billion a year, when you add the oil depletion allowance, the non-depreciated drilling deduction and the enhanced oil recover credit. But let's not remove the oil companies from corporate welfare. Let's kill the senior citizens.
$2 billion a year? That's all? Puh-leaze... Obama sneezes more than that during his morning breakfast... $2 billion could barely fund a week's worth of Cash for Clunkers "rebates". We need REAL cuts and savings to get out of our massive debt, not piling onto it with more bailouts and spending while making merely symbolic cuts here and there that only manage to window dress our massive debt issues.
So more then $2 billion would be merely symbolic? And because you think it's symbolic, the American taxpayer may as well go on subsidizing the fabulously profitable oil companies?
AD2, Funny how those who are adamant about eliminating "entitlements" are strangely silent on the issue of Medicare, which is universally blamed as the biggest drain on the budget. I wonder where the positionless Tea Party stands on this. I dislike the word "entitlements" ( handouts are gracious gifts from hardworking taxpayers,) but the one difference is this: we all go through old age; and some of us, such as those who were devastated by the recent financial meltdowns, might have saved, invested, and been responsible all of their lives, only to fall on a devastating misfortune. As for those who currently live off of the state, despite being perfectly sound in body and mind; I would say, "one more year, and you're on your own." We're in the midst of a tremendous financial disaster, and the few of us who still have jobs (with very uncertain futures) are no longer willing to float your boat.
Maybe we should the movie "Logan's Run" for real. Hit age 65 and poof your gone.
JB. Or "Soylent Green."
Or shutdown our hundreds of military bases all over the world...or not spend almost $400 million having the White House renovated: http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/2304420,CST-NWS-whitehouse23 .article
I agree about shutting down most of our bases around the world... but how will the president be able to host his ever growing number of "House parties" if he can't make the necessary renovations to accommodate his and Michelle's tastes, as well as impress the hundreds of high profile guests that regularly show up to his bashes?
You mean the rennovation plan that was approved in 2008, when Bush was POTUS and Obama was a candidate.
sail, It doesn't matter who approved what; let's get out of everything we don't need -- including blind handouts to our (useless) "allies." and concentrate on what Americans need right now. Let's give the benefits to the people who paid for them.
I wish everyone would stop whining. When the Chinese take over, there will be plenty of jobs for maids and taxi drivers. America was on a drunken spending binge for the past 40 years, now is the big hangover. China has a 450 billion dollar monetary surplus for 2010. If you think you can fight it, build a tank or something. Oh wait... America sold off it's production infrastructure to China in the 90s. Billions of dollars of machinery that was dismantled and shipped away for pennies on the dollar because we were "too good" to get our hands dirty making stuff any more. Maybe if we ask nicely they'll build them for us ....probably not.
Arizona checks in at number 44. Apparently, fiscally responsible government works. Sorry about your state.
Fiscally responsible, Aslanleon? From "Arizona state budget", at: http://sunshinereview.org/index.php/Arizona_state_budget "Arizona's state budget for Fiscal Year 2011 is $8.5 billion dollars. In July 2010, the Legislative Budget Committee's staff projected on July 29, 2010, that the $8.5 billion budget has a shortfall ranging from zero to $1 billion ..." Then take a look at all the programs that will be affected to make ends meet: "Additional proposed reductions include: reduce Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System by 25%; eliminate the KidsCare program; reduce mental health services; eliminate cash assistance for 10,000 families; place a hard cap on day care assistance and eliminate services for for more than 10,000 children of low-income working parents; close the Department of Juvenile Corrections, transitioning the custody of minors to county detention centers and laying off an additional 900 State employees; reduces State employee pay by 5%; and redirect Lottery revenue streams." Does this sound like a financially healthy state? Without federal stimulus money, Aslanleon, Arizona would be in even deeper trouble.
Every single state on the list is making cuts and taking similar steps to what Arizona has done. Why you think Arizona should do any differently is not clear. The FACT that Arizona is in the bottom 11% of per capita indebtedness speaks more clearly than any selective facts which ignore the same behavior in all other states is not convincing.
But Alan, give Arizona credit, they raised taxes.
They did indeed raise taxes, but had to pass it with a referendum that also extinguished the tax within two years. That's a big difference from the temporary taxes so many states pass that are still with us after seventy years.
Yes, fiscally responsible. Our per capita debt is also 44th, far below every blue state. We owe less per capita than anybody. Having less debt per capita than 88% of the other states defines fiscally responsible. Of course, as a liberal, you define fiscal responsibility as owing a lot of money and having high taxes. We understand that. We just don't agree.
Aslan, Well, when our national debt is called in, and we become a banana republic, you can take solace in that.
Aslan, Yes, "tax and spend" liberals are infinitely worse than "just spend and don't record it" Republicans. But, to quote Dick "Peckerhead" Cheney, "Deficits don't matter." Let's list a few of the biggest drains on the national treasury -- could it possibly include two (or more) asinine wars? And how much of that money, which American citizens gratefully approved for the welfare of our troops, vanished into air -- helping neither our troops nor our fellow citizens?
Aslan, Please cease being a self-righteous cooter. Have you ever had a date? Some states have exponentially more people coming to them expecting the American Dream, and then realizing that it's not really within their reach, what with having no talent or skills.
And they thought the money was going to fall from the trees when they gave away our jobs and manufacturing; cut our wages. Come to find out it's not the American people who think our government has money buried in the back yard of the White House, it's our Congress and Lawmakers. Who wouldn thunk it?
They thought right, TWBBug. Money did fall from the trees - into the pockets of the rich...
31 states worse off than california? wow i'm living in heaven again...............uh, wait do these numbers take into account unfunded future liabilities for govt employee retirements?
Nope. Gotta love California.
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