Publius Forum – by Warner Todd Huston
Obama’s Illinois perennially ranks at the very bottom of every statistic that marks a successful state and a new report on America’s “sinkhole states” finds that Illinois again ranks at the very bottom this time for how much state debt each citizen is saddled with.
The statistics gathered by the excellent Chicago-based budget watchdog group Truth In Accounting calculated how much state debt–obligations like pensions, healthcare plans for retirees, etc–each citizen would have to pay to retire the debt in a lump sum.
The group has dubbed the worst states as “America’s Sinkhole States.”
Truth In Accounting found that Connecticut is the worst state in the union with each citizens owing 48 thousand dollars per citizen to retire the debt. But coming in a close second is the state of Illinois with a whopping 43 thousand dollars per citizen in debt.
Rounding out the bottom five were New Jersey at $36K, Massachusetts with $28K, and Hawaii with $27K of debt per citizen.
Each of these states have been controlled by Democrats for decades.
By comparison, the best states all had a budget surplus with Alaska topping the list with a surplus of 446K per citizen. Next came North Dakota with a $22K surplus, Wyoming with $20K, Utah with $2,700, and South Dakota also with a surplus of $2,700 per citizen. In each case but Hawaii these totals are anincrease in debt over last year.
“Taxpayer Burden,” the group says, “is each taxpayer’s share of their state’s debt after setting aside capital-related debt and assets. Remaining debt is primarily unpaid pension and retirement health promises.”
See the Truth In Accounting report titled, “The 2013 Financial State of the States.”
Here is the latest list of stories showing that Illinois is the worst of the worst in the country, all thanks to the Democrats, House Speaker Michael Madigan, and Democrat Gov. Pat Quinn:
- Illinois a ‘Sinkhole State’: Rates Second Worst for Liability Per Taxpayer
- Illinois Worst in Midwest for Private Sector Job Creation
- Illinois One of the Worst GDP Growth in Entire Midwest
- Illinois Ranks as ‘Worst’ For Small Businesses
- Of the Fifty, Illinoisans Have Least Trust in the State Government
- Poll: Even People in Illinois Say Illinois Worst State to Live In
- Illinois has the most underfunded pensions in the countryand faces a deficit growth of $17 million per day.
- The state also has the worst funded teachers pensions in the country.
- Illinois was identified as one of the worst states in the union for its oppressive, jobs-killing lawsuit climate
- Illinois had more home foreclosures than almost every other state.
- Illinois ranks as the 49th worst debtor state in the nation.
- Illinois was ranked the 48th worst state for business.
- Illinois ranked 48th for unemployment making it among the worst five states for joblessness.
- Its government also has one of the worst rankings for state transparency and accountability in the nation, too.
- As to big city stats, Chicago tops the nation with the highest unemployment rate.
- Illinois has the worst credit rating
- Illinois Tops Nation in Growth of Food Stamp Recipients
- Mercatus: Illinois ranks at the bottom of the most free states
- Illinois Ranks as One of Worst States for Losing Citizens
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’sBigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, andBigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com,CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.