Every Arizonan Owes More than $7,500 in State Debt

Goldwater Institute ^ | August 30, 2012 | Stephen Slivinski

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Every Arizona household's debt is getting bigger — but most people don't even know they owe. In Arizona, every man, woman and child owes state and local governments more than $7,500 for bills ranging from sports stadiums to parking garages.

State and local per-person long-term debt grew from $4,568 per Arizonan in 2000 to $7,587 in 2009, an increase of 66 percent in less than a decade. Arizona's per-person debt load is almost $1,000 more than the national median of around $6,800 in per-person debt.

The $7,587 owed by every Arizonan to pay off state and local debts is in addition to the $51,000 per-American share of the mounting federal debt.

In a new report, Cutting up the Credit Cards: Seven Ideas to Reform the Culture of Debt in State and Local Government, Goldwater Institute Senior Economist Stephen Slivinski examines the vastness of the state's debt and recommends seven key reforms to rein in Arizona's debt culture.

"In economic times like these, most people have their hands full trying to balance their own checkbooks," said Slivinski. "Yet our policymakers can't restrain themselves from committing to more and more new debt that Arizona families ultimately will have to pay off."

Although Arizona's framers established a constitutional debt limit to cap state debt to $350,000 — roughly $8 million in today's dollars — the limit is not effective at actually limiting debt. This is because the courts have interpreted the debt limit to apply only to a specific type of debt: the "full, faith, and credit," or general obligation debt. Politicians are able to commit current and future taxpayers to paying off a variety of debt instruments — usually called "non-guaranteed debt" — that are not subject to the constitutional limit and often do not require voter approval.

[napscoordinator]

This is 100 percent unsat. This is a deep red state with Republican Governor and she is spending like this? What is up with this?

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Keep in mind that none of this includes unfunded entitlements at the state and federal level, which pushes the per person debt load way into the six figures.

But to a lot of people, the mantra is “Keep the Ponzi Scheme going until I die, then its someone else’s problem.”

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The courts magically declare most the debt “non-debt” and say that somehow it doesn’t count. Total Ponzi scheme as the previous commenter said.