JOHN REITMEYER | JULY 18, 2017
Persistent underfunding of public-employee pension system looks to have been a key factor in dismal showings in state-by-state comparisons
New Jersey’s chronic budget problems have brought on a series of credit-rating downgrades in recent years, and now the state has landed in dead last place in two recent reviews of the fiscal health of all 50 states.
The latest “Fiscal Condition” rankings released by George Mason University’s Mercatus Center just dropped New Jersey several spots to 50th, thanks in large part to both short-term and long-run solvency issues that are detailed in the university’s review.
New Jersey also came in last place in a new Pew Charitable Trusts long-term analysis of how well state revenues matched expenses between fiscal years 2002 and 2015.
In both cases, the state’s persistent underfunding of the public-employee pension system appears to have contributed significantly to the dismal showings in the state-by-state comparisons. But the reports also highlight some of New Jersey’s other longstanding budget problems, including significant debt and the lack of a substantial surplus account to hedge against revenue shortfalls.
Takes a LOT of work to stay in last place.
Murphy should keep that record going strong.
THIS Boyd. So many vocal Womens March supporters in Risgewood!
https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2017/07/womens_march_wishes_nj_cop_killer_a_happy_birthday.html
Hate to burst your bubble but we are near last because we support pretty much every red state in the nation (except Texas) Having 500+municipalities while supporting the rest of the country ain’t easy ….. https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-least-dependent-on-the-federal-government/2700/
C’mon…. worse than Illinois – which is on the brink of bankruptcy?
Who writes these articles and do they use any actual facts?
(or do they only use the ones that suit their purposes)
@pesmith: I hate to burst your MSNBC talking point, but this is a pretty well-debunked myth.
peesmith – hate to burst your bubble but:
.
1) NJ supports pretty much every blue state
.
2) the widely quoted Wallethub “study” is flawed since their methodology is unscientific and is designed to make Democratically run states look “better”
Their use of arbitrary weighting of certain parameters, the mixing of quantifiable primary amounts (tax dollars paid/received) and calculated percentages (federal funding as a share of state revenue) is non-standard and undisciplined. Of course the biggest offender is the fact that they arbitrarily incorporate “share of federal jobs” (whose calculation is undefined) as a “federal dependency” when clearly it is not since the employees paid by the federal government are (assumedly) productive and are clearly producing goods or services for pay and are not “dependent”.
This “study” is really just a PR club to be used by liberals and does not even come close to passing economic muster as a legitimate study.
.
But its fun to ignore all this and engage in hashtag economics and delude yourself that Democrat states are not the financial drain on our tax dollars that they really are.
.
.However, make no mistake… NJ IS PAYING and is a big loser in the federal tax lottery regardless of which other states get our money.
.
Yes we’re paying and states like Mississippi, So Carolina, Louisiana, the Dakotas, Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, W Virginia etc are the beneficiaries. The blue states are the ones paying for the rest of the country. period. And other statistics may vary but the end result is the same. We get 60 cents back for the buck. https://andymatic.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/welfare-state-red-blue-672×372.jpg
9:08
Wow
How can I convince you to run for Govenor?
@pete smith. You are correct we don’t get much back for our tax dollars sent to Washington. Your anger should be directed at those Democrats who were sent to Washington to represent us, not walk in lock step with the democrat party. Booker, Melendez, lautenberg , corzine, toricelli, Bradley didn’t do shit for us. Even when their party was in control
6:27… I’m more angry at the NJ Republican party for thinking that candidates like Lonegan and Kyrillos were senatorial timber, which gave us Booker and Menendez as a result. There has to be moderate, electable gop members somewhere in this state.
“There has to be moderate, electable gop members somewhere in this state.”
… but there doesn’t need to be moderate Democrats in the state… they can all be liberal loons
358… i wish that too. … middle of the road common sense…