Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Thirty-Nine States Do Not Have Enough Money To Pay Their Bills
Forbes ^ | Oct. 1, 2021 | Mayra Rodriguez Valladares

Posted on 10/05/2021 8:36:24 AM PDT by george76

At the end of the fiscal year 2020, 39 states did not have enough money to pay all of their bills.

....

Total debt among the 50 states amounted to $1.5 trillion at the end of the fiscal year 2020

...

Retirement plans, such as pension and retiree health care benefits .. account for the majority of state debt ... on average, the 50 states had only set aside 64 cents to fund pension promises and 8 cents to fund retiree health care promises

....

When states cannot make up investment shortfalls, then taxpayers have to make up the difference.

...

Connecticut replaced New Jersey to be the state in the worst fiscal health and with the highest per resident tax burden, $62,500. Connecticut only had $16.8 billion, or 17% of the necessary funds to pay $96.3 billion worth of bills. Connecticut catapulted to last place due to pension plan liabilities which rose faster than investment income.

...

accounting tricks include..

• Inflating revenue assumptions.

• Counting borrowed money as income.

• Understating the true costs of government.

• Delaying the payment of current bills until the start of the next fiscal year so they aren’t included in the budget calculations.

...

the most common accounting trick states use is hiding a large portion of employee compensation from the budgeting process.” Employee compensation packages include healthcare, life insurance, and pensions .. unfortunately, some elected officials have used portions of the money that is owed to pension and OPEB funds to keep taxes low and pay for politically popular programs. This is similar to charging earned benefits to a credit card without having the money to pay off the debt. Instead of funding promised benefits now, they have been charged to future taxpayers.

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Connecticut; US: Hawaii; US: Illinois; US: Massachusetts; US: New Jersey
KEYWORDS: debt; states; statesdebt; taxes; taxpayers
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-39 next last

1 posted on 10/05/2021 8:36:24 AM PDT by george76
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: george76

Did Forbes mention the political persuasion of those states?


2 posted on 10/05/2021 8:38:51 AM PDT by Fido969 (45 is Superman!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: george76

well then, they’d best stop spending/wasting so damned much of our tax money


3 posted on 10/05/2021 8:38:57 AM PDT by faithhopecharity (Politicians are not born, they are excreted. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: george76

Not to worry, they’ll find the money in your pocket.


4 posted on 10/05/2021 8:39:03 AM PDT by brownsfan (For conservatives, we have taxation without representation.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: george76

The professional politicians and embedded bureaucrats are the true enemies of this country


5 posted on 10/05/2021 8:39:34 AM PDT by A_Former_Democrat (#LeaveTheGOP. Pass it on Liberty Valance Time. The point of a gun is the only law they understan)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: george76

6 posted on 10/05/2021 8:40:24 AM PDT by Fido969 (45 is Superman!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: george76

Its OK - we have a Federal Reserve that can create money from nothing to buy huge quantities of Government debt.

That money then gets spent to bailout all the organs of progressive-leftist government and state power all the way down to your local paid activists.

Wash-rinse-repeat.


7 posted on 10/05/2021 8:40:27 AM PDT by PGR88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: george76

Ask the illegals. They are getting lots of money from biden admin


8 posted on 10/05/2021 8:42:44 AM PDT by Singermom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: george76

Retirement plans, such as pension and retiree health care benefits .. account for the majority of state debt ...


Bevin was trying to fix that as Kentucky’s governor, so the Teacher’s union pulled out all the stops to defeat him.


9 posted on 10/05/2021 8:43:07 AM PDT by cuban leaf (We killed our economy and damaged our culture. In 2021 we will pine for the salad days of 2020.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: george76

Everything is fine.

I think that companies raise their prices to the state to make up for the time it takes that state to pay the bill.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see this done on purpose to benefit donors.


10 posted on 10/05/2021 8:43:53 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: george76
A year or two ago Howie Carr,a great Boston talk show host (and huge Trump supporter),spoke of an MBTA bus driver (the MBTA is Greater Boston's transit system) who is getting a $95,000 a year pension. Not a lawyer,not an executive,not an electrician...a BUS DRIVER.

Ten bucks says that that kind of thing is happening in every major city...and many of the not so major ones as well.

11 posted on 10/05/2021 8:49:53 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Covid Is All About Mail In Balloting)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: george76

The Biden/Harris regime will bail out the states using taxpayer’s money. McConnell and McCarthy will publicly oppose the bail out but privately support it.


12 posted on 10/05/2021 8:51:59 AM PDT by Mr. N. Wolfe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Fido969

They NEVER have enough money because they steal it, waste it on unnecessary trips and functions and throw the rest into their retirement and health care funds.
They provide very few services anymore.
Don’t do upkeep on streets and essentially blow it on free gas for their vehicles for their own private use. I have seen them filling up their own private cars at the city pumps on the weekends


13 posted on 10/05/2021 8:52:37 AM PDT by doc maverick
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: george76

Hence the need to steal an election and force Red states to bail out Democrat dumps. These states are bankrupt and worse, have no way of coming back. They’re financially not viable and like “The Ruins of Detroit”, will become a living history of decline.


14 posted on 10/05/2021 8:54:00 AM PDT by T.B. Yoits
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Gay State Conservative

It’s common practice to promote retiring state and local government employees a week or even day before they retire so their pension and benefits are increased. Great way to game the system.


15 posted on 10/05/2021 8:59:11 AM PDT by Trinity5
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Fido969

Or bring up the massive amounts of monies going to social programs and entitlement spending that goes to illegals and refugees. And that doesn’t include all the money for schools, court systems and other aspects of life they’re allowed to take advantage of.

And it’s only getting worse.

95,000 afghans. If half are women, within the next 12 months or sooner that number will go up by around 40,000, after they give birth to US citizens. Numbers will climb when family reunification kicks in for them.

And that isn’t including the savages coming from Mexico.


16 posted on 10/05/2021 9:00:45 AM PDT by qaz123
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: george76

Delaware just missed at #45. Way to go, dummies. Just keep voting Democrat
Kill babies
Kill old people
Kill jobs
Kill. Kill. Kill


17 posted on 10/05/2021 9:01:34 AM PDT by NTHockey (My rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners. And to the NSA trolls, FU)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: george76

Can we assume the deadbeat state were primarily run by democrats the last 15 years?


18 posted on 10/05/2021 9:08:34 AM PDT by GOPJ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOC_dcuJO48 Song: Willie (prick)Milley, Gen Austin & Winken Blinken)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PGR88
Its OK - we have a Federal Reserve that can create money from nothing to buy huge quantities of Government debt.

Odd how the FED won't print money to help the Post office... or 'print' to save Social Security for the next hundred years. Guess they only use that BS 'excuse' for commie redistribution...

19 posted on 10/05/2021 9:12:41 AM PDT by GOPJ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOC_dcuJO48 Song: Willie (prick)Milley, Gen Austin & Winken Blinken)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: george76

Pensions and health bennies for public workers, and Medicaid.

I include education in that first one cuz that’s most of where education spending goes, pensions and cadillac health bennies.


20 posted on 10/05/2021 9:12:52 AM PDT by mewzilla (Those aren't masks. They're muzzles. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-39 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson