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LOL, another useless Forbes list. Roll over some of the 4 star states and some of the lower rated states. It seems the stats they choose to post must not have any bearing on their ratings.
My birth state isn't too bad, but my current state has some problems.
Nebraska and Iowa seem to be doing best by their measures. Utah and New Hamsphire are listed as better though. I guess that's because their cost-of-living is higher because the debt-per-capita and pension underfunding looked greater in those two than in NE or IA. Maybe $7200 in Utah is like $4800 in Nebraska. Or, looking at the state page, Utah has more growth and less people dependent on government.
Every time I go back to Iowa I'm always floored at how fiscally responsible they are - democrats and republicans.
I went home and just read in the local paper that the state took spending cuts and this year are coming in with a 966 million SURPLUS. That's a full 16% of the current budget.
Next year they're cutting another $200 million to balance the budget, dealing with the $700 million hole left by the stimulus fundings, and coming out with 50% cuts in corporate income as well as property taxes.
They're now left with the largest rainy day fund in Iowa history, a full 15% of the budget or $1 billion dollars, lower taxes, they've dealt with the loss of future federal funds, have the best credit rating, one of the lowest debt loads in the country and a balanced budget to boot. That's very impressive compared to most states. Especially since a lot of people are going to be in shock when the hundreds of billions in federal money they had gotten the past two years disappears next year.
Many people are REALLY upset and there's a ton of discussion about the budget cuts and what this means - but you can't deny that their fiscal house is in amazing shape. Especially for these tough economic times. There's a loss of jobs and funding for projects, but at least they'll be on a very healthy platform to discuss those in the future. Not like Illinois, which slashes everything, has billions in debt, billions in the red each year, and bloated pensions.
The worst state debt rating is California, with an A1 rating.
Illinois has an Aa3 rating, a step above CA.
New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Louisiana, West Virginia, Maine, and Arizona have an Aa2 rating.
Puerto Rico has an A3 rating, which is two rungs below CA.
Among states South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska look best according to this as "NGO" apparently means "No General Obligation debt." Iowa, North Dakota, Montana, and Vermont are listed as pretty minimal. My birth state of Arkansas seems to be among the ten lowest in debt if I'm reading the chart right.
The worst on this look to be California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Illinois. My current state is somewhere in the middle.
Heh, Nebraska should just ask its citizens for $17 per head per household to wipe out its debt.
Nah, they will just raise the gas taxes again. That should do it.
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