As the United States government continues to pile up debt, most states are following in its footsteps. Total state government debt now stands at $1.49 trillion with 40 states lacking sufficient funds to pay their bills according to Truth in Accounting’s (TIA) Financial State of the States report.
At the end of the fiscal year (FY) 2018, 40 states did not have enough money to pay all of their bills. This means that to balance the budget – as is supposedly required by law in 49 states – elected officials have not included the true costs of the government in their budget calculations and have pushed costs onto future taxpayers.” – Financial State of the States report
Unfunded pension liabilities are the primary factor driving the pileup of state debt. According to the report, “One of the ways states make their budgets look balanced is by shortchanging public pension and OPEB (another post-employment benefit) funds. This practice has resulted in an $824 billion shortfall in pension funds and a $664.6 billion shortfall in OPEB funds.”
TIA Founder and CEO Sheila Weinberg said for many states, there is no easy way out of their fiscal mess. “Many of these state governments have no hope of achieving a budget recovery barring significant program cuts or tax hikes,” said Weinberg. And don’t expect any states to begin cutting back. Instead, you will be expected to pay for whatever the government demands in the form of higher taxes. Enjoy your freedom.
As Schiff Gold wrote:
In simple terms, if you’re depending on a fat government pension to fund your retirement dreams, your golden years could turn into a nightmare. As we’ve reported, you should probably shouldn’t assume any government pension will ever be paid.
According to TIA, state governments use a number of accounting tricks to create the illusion of fiscal responsibility. But New Jersy, who has the biggest problem, has a debt per taxpayer of $65,100. That’s a lot of money for people to owe for things they didn’t voluntarily agree to pay for.
The TIA report highlights yet another aspect of America’s massive debt bubble that includes not only government red ink but also corporate debt and consumer debt. Extreme debt load in America today is among the underlying economic fundamentals that simply can’t be ignored, and yet consumers pile it on as corporations go bankrupt for having too much and the government continues to steal more money from people who haven’t even been born to finance their existence.
The bubble will burst at some point.
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Oh Know – The sky is falling AGAIN!
What’s the list of states?
I don’t know why he’s so picky. All 50.
Now name 40 states,if you can, knowing you should have 30 of them correct.
Yay for NC, the 5th best state on the list.
In Wyo, trying to convince everyone to put it in Silver and ammo.
The US is suffocating in debt; fed. gov’t debt, state gov’t debt, local gov’t debt, foreign debt, corporate debt, consumer debt (loans & credit cards), student loan debt, mortgage debt, personal debt, car loan debt, and on and on. Only with gov’t type of accounting can officials say Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are still solvent, they are actually insolvent, operating on fumes. And most larger cities across the land are in dire financial straits. The stark reality is the country is hopelessly in debt, it will not be satisfactorily resolved. Debt can only be dealt with in a few ways; by paying it off, by renegotiating the amount and terms, or by defaulting – each option would come with its own huge problematic realities.
Compounding the debt problem for the citizens of the US is that wages are essentially stagnant, and wealth has become hyper concentrated.
The national infrastructure has been rated a ‘D’ by the Amer. Society of Civil Eng.s, it will cost multi trillions to fix or replace just what we have, not counting new systems. Yet the idiot officials wants to – nationalize health care, initiate the National Green Plan, pay reparations to minorities, have taxpayers assume student debt, and maintain an ever-growing Mil. Ind. Comp., each are multi trillions dollar expenses.
However, it seems we still have billions to give to Israel every year (give, not loan). We still have billions and billions to facilitate illegal immigration, but none to build a wall. And we have billions, if not trillions necessary to fund unending and fruitless wars, that do not serve any real Amer. interest. Of course the billions and trillions of dollars don’t actually exist, it’s all borrowed, we still owe on it after it’s gone.
The empire cannot and will not endure, the cost to do so is altogether unsustainable; but the state absolutely hates a loss of power, it cannot simply tolerate it. It will resort to any action to maintain its power and status. When TPTB / authoritarian state realizes that empire cannot any longer be maintained, then financial and economic resources that are necessary domestically, will be diverted to the state, causing a further reduction in the statndard of living and quality of life. This is when it is most dangerous, a reduction in civil rights must accompany any authoritarian action against its own people in an effort to hold it all together.
Every single Founding Father understood and stated that all States were sovereign, and endorsed the unconditional right of any State to withdraw from the union of States if it desired. There are a vast number and variety of contemporary official documents, letters, official records, correspondence, written statements, published essays and papers, etc., from many different authors of the time, all supporting the right of State secession. When things start going down, I’d like to think my State will break away in an effort to prevent its citizens from going down too.
Confederate Bill, thanks for sharing more wisdom from the South. Some of my ancestors came from Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, etc. and the wisdom those farmers displayed was awesome.
The Congress critters balancing the Federal Budget are stupid or treasonous. Maybe both.
The States unlike the Federal Government can’t go to the Federal Reserve for a “loan”. The States can go to the Federal Government for the “loan” however which would necessitate the preceding. Some, likely a lot of the liabilities the States have are costs incurred from programs mandated by Federal Law. The 10th Amendment is probably the most abused within the Bill of Rights. It’s been continuously eroded since the War Of Succession and virtually eviscerated under FDR and the “New Deal”. I’m unaware of its applicability in modern times other than taking up ink space in cool looking reproduction copies sold to tourists.
Given that all the Government union Democrats donated to the Democrats politicians that they negotiated their retirements with, I really don’t care if the old Democrat unionists get a “haircut”, have to eat dog food, and lay in their own soil in a rent controlled studio just above the bus stop.
I see where I supposedly owe some stupid Democrat over $30,000. I don’t have it and if I did I’d burn it before I gave it to a Democrat.
My point is that is the real problem is, us old guys, aren’t going to pay everybody’s bills anymore. FY. Starve, I don’t care about you, FY!
r says, “FY. Starve, I don’t care about you, FY!”
^ This is the best thing, since the ‘have a nice day’ smiley face, and should be printed on everything.
Who holds the mortgage to these states?
The FED is corruption plus 10.
Among 208 countries around the world, USA is dead last in debt at 449 trillion dollars. Where’s all the tax money going. Well, we all know that
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/fields/238rank.html
So what are the states?