CHECK OUT THE MISERY INDEX OF YOUR STATE….
THANKS TO NRG
Long article (copied in full below) on Chris Christie in Sunday’s NY Times Magazine, which included the graph immediately below, which shows CT, Alaska, Hawaii and NJ leading in terms of the per household burden of unfunded pension and OPEB liabilities. CT might take the lead if the reported unfunded pension liabilities were “marked to market” by using a lower, more reasonable assumption regarding the future investment returns on money in the pension fund (CT assumes 8.25%-8.50%, one of only five states as high as 8.5%, whereas Alaska and NJ are at 8.25%, and Hawaii is at 8.0%).
If you are wondering about outstanding state and local debt, it appears that all four are currently in the same area of ~$12,000 per capita or ~$30,000 per household, which would require a chart twice as long. And, of course if we add the tax burden to the equation, CT is a clear winner in Financial Misery with state and local taxes at $7,007 per capita versus $6,610 in NJ, $4,920 in HI and only $2,871 in Alaska (nice to have lots of oil), based on the latest Tax Foundation numbers. With Dan Malloy, the Democrats and the unions still firmly in control in Hartford, it seems reasonable to expect that CT will widen its lead over the next few years.
February 24, 2011
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