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US News & World Report: New Jersey: Least Fiscally Sound State in U.S.
May 23, 2018
Andrew Soergel reports on the latest Mercatus Center rankings of state fiscal health. No surprise, New Jersey is last.
The rankings are based on five categories: cash, budget, long-run solvency, trust fund solvency and service-level solvency. Researchers describe the state’s outlook as “dire,” he reports, in part because long-term liabilities represent 360 percent of total assets, which translates to $16,821 per capita, higher than any other state. New Jersey’s debt is also three and a half times the average of the other states.
The other states in the bottom five of the rankings are Illinois, Massachusetts, Kentucky and Maryland. Florida is at the top of the rankings, followed by North and South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.
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