User:Pepesia/sandbox

This page displays the current general-fund debt positions of the governments of US states.

Methodology
The debt amounts listed are the general-fund state debts. In the state budget papers, this general-fund state debt is sometimes also referred to as "tax-supported debt" or "general obligation debt".

The figures listed do not include future state-based financial liabilities over the decades, such as outstanding bonds, or unfunded pension commitments.

Future state financial commitments
A 2012 study by the think tank State Budget Solutions which included both present and future state financial obligations, said that by including outstanding bonds, unfunded pension commitments and budget gaps, the 50 state governments have a total of $4.19 trillion in liabilities in 2012. Using the same methodology, the total financial liabilities of the 50 states went down in 2012 from the 2011 amount, when the total state liabilities equaled $4.24 trillion.

This method of combining both present and future analysis of state financial obligations and presenting the combined figure as the present "state debt" has been criticised by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-of-centre think tank.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities argues that the lumping together of US state's current fiscal deficits, along with longer-term issues relating to debt, pension obligations, and retiree health costs over the next 30 years, creates the mistaken impression that drastic and immediate measures are needed to avoid an imminent fiscal meltdown.

IN 2012, the director of the North Dakota Office of Management and Budget, Pam Sharp, took issue with the way State Budget Solutions calculated debt. State Budget Solutions included items handled through the state, such as revenue bonds, that are not obligations owed by the state, she said.

By including revenue bonds, the report found North Dakota has $1.9 billion in general debt. Sharp said actual general debt is less than $1 billion, which represents debt on large developments such as buildings, roads and water projects. "The biggest problem with this report is that they report that the state has $4 billion of pension debt," she said. "The $4 billion isn't even close."