Worst 10 State Finances

From Collosicus.com, October, 2022

Have you ever wondered, “What if my state suddenly imploded because of how much debt it has?” No? Are you sure? You’re not constantly considering if your state has the worst state finances?

Well, that’s okay.

You’re here now.

You’re safe.

You’re about to be serenaded with the exact information you never wondered in your life but now desperately must know – what is the state of my state’s finances? Is it the worst in the Union? How’s my state’s budget? Is it balanced? (Spoiler alert: it’s not) Did you know that state budgets can affect you personally? (Yes you, reading this in Kansas).

But lucky you in Kansas, you are not among those states who would affect their population the worst, because the ranking below works like so: take the total debts (or surplus) or money and monetary assets a state has at the end of its fiscal year and subtract what it was obligated to pay out. Then you divide that total debt obligation by the population of that state. So what you get is the average amount a taxpayer of the state they reside in would have to pay to help keep their state out of debt for that year.

This list focuses on those states in lots of debt, and continue to be in debt as they did not have enough money to meet their debts for the year. If they had strong-armed their population to pay up to meet their obligations, then each taxpayer would have to pay quite a large amount per person. This list is thus ranked by whatever random taxpayers in the states below would have had to pay in taxes to help balance their state’s budgets....

5 Hawaii

The most unique state in all of the Union is not unique in its debts, unfortunately. While the landscape is beautiful and the natural beauty is something to be mesmerized by – the state’s finances are not. It reminds me of a quote I hear occasionally “You cannot eat the view.”

Hawaii has also not been funding its promised pension benefits and retiree health care benefits for several years now. And to make matters worse for the state, perhaps the state most emblazoned around tourism, its financial condition worsened by 11 percent during the pandemic. And we all know how unfortunately crippling the pandemic was in general, only to be a force multiplier to the tourism industry in a state which thrives on it.

For 2021, Hawaii had $6.5 billion to pay its bills of $24.5 billion. That doesn’t even look good to read. Even on a list of the worst state finances. Due to this, Hawaii was short $18 billion with an “F” grade from Truth in Accounting once again. The final result of all this is a taxpayer burden of $37,000….

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