New Jersey and Illinois unsurprisingly are the two states with the worst finances, according to a new ranking published by the Mercatus Center, a libertarian think tank at George Mason University.
Those two blue states led by Republican governors, which have been wracked by fiscal crises in recent days, were joined at the bottom of the rankings this year by a third: Massachusetts.
Kentucky and Maryland round out the top five fiscally mismanaged states. Illinois, New Jersey and Kentucky have been in the bottom five in recent years and are “consistently doing poorly,” said Adam Millsap, a Mercatus researcher. “There’s probably a case to be made that those three are in the worst shape.”
On the other end of the spectrum, five red states can claim to be the best managed: Florida, the Dakotas, Utah and Wyoming.
The Mercatus Center’s ranking takes into account not just states’ ability to pay short-term bills and their ability to make long-run spending commitments, but also states’ underfunded pensions and healthcare plans, a major problem facing many parts of the country. The ranking also considers whether the state would be able to provide new services if they are needed or if it’s already overtaxed and financially stretched.
The rankings are just a snapshot in time, Millsap noted, and don’t take into account that some financially strapped states might be facing slow economic growth and residents moving out, problems that could be compounded by efforts to raise taxes or lower services.
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The 5 worst fiscally managed states in the US https://t.co/8kQsqv7AhN pic.twitter.com/4R2NMEYa3r
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