Best-Run States Are Heavily Republican, Study Finds

[Geee]

Investors Business Daily:

The ten most financially sound states in the country are all heavily Republican, while all but one of the ten worst states are heavily Democratic. That’s according to a ranking of states in a new report from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University

 

The report — “Ranking the States by Fiscal Condition” — used official government data to measure the states’ ability to pay short-term bills and meet longer-term obligations, such as public pensions or health care costs, using five separate measures.

 

Cash solvency, for example, measures a state’s ability to pay its immediate bills. Budget solvency measures whether states will end the year with a surplus or deficit. Long-run solvency looks at a state’s ability to meet long-term spending commitments. Service-level solvency measures a state’s ability to respond to a demand for increased spending. And trust fund solvency measures unfunded pension liabilities and state debt.

 

States can do well on some measures and poorly on others. Alaska, for example, ranks at the top for cash, budget and long-run solvency, but near the bottom on the other two measures. Ohio ranks fifth in cash solvency, but 48th on trust fund solvency. This year’s report includes Puerto Rico, which scored dead last on every measure.