A Truth in Accounting study revealed that New Jersey is the state that had the worst fiscal health in the nation in 2022The country has billions of dollars in debt and a burden on individual taxpayers estimated at nearly $59,000, the highest total of any place in the country.
The report called Financial State of the States 2022 and reviewed by Just The News placed The Garden State in last place among the top five "sink states" in fiscal health, the 13th consecutive year it has held this position.
FSOS-2022 by Voz Media on Scribd
Excessive expenditure
The authors of the report gave New Jersey's financial condition an "F" grade due to " excessive spending and pension and health care debt." The group said the money the state needs to pay its outstanding bills has increased by more than $12.5 billion in the last fiscal year (2022). Overall, the state's outstanding invoices total more than $241 million:
New Jersey had only set aside 47 cents for every dollar of promised pension benefits and one cent for every dollar of promised retiree health care benefits (...) Given these facts, the state's overall debt situation is likely to deteriorate further over the next year.
The Garden State is preceded in the ranking by Connecticut (ranked 49th), Illinois (48th), Hawaii (47th) and Massachusetts (46th).
Reckless spending by Democratic governor
Some Republicans noted that the report highlights "reckless spending" by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy's administration. State Senator Michael Testa stated:
What we are doing now is just digging a deeper hole (...) All of this makes a state that was already unaffordable even more unaffordable. We must chart a new fiscal course because New Jersey residents deserve better.
Testa and other Republicans have introduced legislation to reduce the amount of earmarks earmarked for the budget to require that some funds be distributed through competitive grants.
"Some of these payments may be for worthy causes (...) However, these awards should be transparent, competitive and merit-based, but what we have seen in Trenton is secretive, arbitrary and unfair."
