Sold out Futures By State: I’m Working On It

The next post will be delayed, but I’m completing a tabulation of which states are the worst and best off based on state and local debts, past capital investments, and pension costs and underfunding. What I can say is that if New York City were a separate state, it would have the most sold out future in the U.S., with current and future city residents twice as bad off as the U.S. average, and paying an extra 2.0% of their incomes in state and local taxes with nothing in return as a result. NYC is the worst of close to it in every category except past infrastructure construction. And it can’t just raise taxes to get out of this because as shown earlier in this series based on the 2012 Census of Governments, it already has the highest state and local tax burden, mineral extraction taxes excluded. The trashed 10 by state are, from the worst, Rhode Island, Illinois, Michigan, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York (though the part outside NYC is not so bad off), Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and California though California is only 20.0% worse off than the U.S. average). The full post will include plenty of back-up, discussion, data and charts.НЕВИДИМЫЕ ПОТРЕБНОСТИ