Chris Christie's New Jersey Is Least Solvent State

Investor's Business Daily ^ | 01/16/2014 | John Merline

[IBD editorial writer]

More bad news for Gov. Chris Christie: New Jersey is dead last in the nation in terms of its fiscal solvency, according to a new report.

The study, released this week by the free-market Mercatus Center at George Mason University, ranked each state's financial health based on a variety of measures, such as cash on hand to pay its current bills, budget surpluses or deficits, unfunded liabilities and ability to provide adequate public services.

The Mercatus study used 2012 data.

New Jersey came in last on two of those measures — budget and long-term solvency — and finished in the bottom 15 in two others.

[JoeProBono]

[ken5050]

It's all Corzine's fault!!

[Mouton]

Interestingly those states with NO state income tax faired quite well. Shows the logic to the concept that give them more money, they spend more money.

[sickoflibs]

This happens in Blue/lib states with GOP governors for what should be obvious reasons.

Look at CA under Arnold. Maryland had a similar crisis under Bob Ehrlich.

But it gets fixed when a Dem takes over.
Jerry Brown fixed CAs solvency problem with multiple waves of tax increases after tax increase, as did Martin O Malley in Maryland.

[Hojczyk]

Cannot do much when both houses are controlled
By the rats...Ronald Reagan did pretty good...got help from the southern conservative Democrats.. There all gone now....

[sickoflibs]

RE :”Cannot do much when both houses are controlled
By the rats...Ronald Reagan did pretty good...got help from the southern conservative Democrats.. There all gone now....”

The way the Dems took out GOP gov Bob Erlich here was to send him lots of popular spending bills, like education, that he was scared to veto.
And they denied him casino revenue just to box him in even further, that passed that when O Malley took over.

So when the (state debt) bondholders started threatening to raise interest rates he caved on his no tax promise while claiming he only raised fees. They nailed him like they nailed GHWB in 1990 who went with raising taxes because he needed funding for Gulf War.

They call them a liar and phony for giving in to them.

Then a Dem takes over and raises tax after tax, simple formula in Blue states.

[Sooth2222]

Interesting that the top five states all voted for Romney in 2012, the bottom five states all voted for Obama.

[Starboard]

Most Marylanders I know are making plans to leave the state. They have had it with ever increasing taxes.

One of the recent departees is a dyed in the wool lib who moved to Florida to escape the high taxes. Even the libs are abandoning the ship. lol

[moovova]

Christie spent all the money on orange cones.

[VRWCmember]

But it gets fixed when a Dem takes over. Jerry Brown fixed CAs solvency problem with multiple waves of tax increases after tax increase, as did Martin O Malley in Maryland.

Well, not exactly. Kalifornia is ranked 46th.

[VRWCmember]

From the article:

The study also shows that Republican governors appear overall to do a better job running a sound fiscal ship than Democrats.

Of the top 10 most fiscally sound states, all but one — Montana — have a Republican governor. And Montana is generally a conservative state, having voted for the GOP candidate in each of the past five presidential elections.

Of the bottom 10, all but two — New Jersey and Pennsylvania — are run by Democratic governors and consistently vote Democratic.

These findings are consistent with other state economic rankings, which tend to find that so-called red states with lower taxes and fewer regulations tend to do better than blue states that have bigger governments, higher taxes and more red tape.

Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/011614-686566-christie-new-jersey-worst-for-fiscal-solvency.htm

[sickoflibs]

RE :”Well, not exactly. Kalifornia is ranked 46th.”

But I see that is a 2012 figure. Didn't he raise scores of taxes in 2012 and last year?? (like the sales tax)

That state was in a dire fiscal situation when he took over ~ 2011, lots of spending and no tax increases to pay for it.

Wika says

On June 27, 2013, Governor Jerry Brown signed a balanced budget (no deficit) for the state, its first in decades; however the state's debt remains at $132 billion

[Georgia Girl 2]

NJ’s credit rating just recently got downgraded to negative.

[sickoflibs]

Brown raised lots of spending too, but he raised taxes to pay for it,
and the CA voters seem happy with that, just like here in lib Maryland.

[Conservative4Ever]

The lib media is starting early with their Christie take down.

[VRWCmember]

My guess is that the California "balanced budget" relies on fiscal gimmickry to make it appear to balance its budget, similar to New Jersey.

But Arnett also found that New Jersey's revenues aren't keeping up with expenditures, and that the state uses fiscal practices that "only appear to balance its annual budgets."

I don't have any details or data on Kalifornia, and this article only addresses New Jersey, but I wouldn't count on more liberal policies from a socialist like Brown to rectify the dismal conditions caused by years of socialist-lite policies of the dems in the legislature of KA.