Anyone notice Blue states tend to me more fiscally responsible?

[TheRealJoeFish]

Here you go.  Now you can determine for yourself.  (Note California.)

https://www.mercatus.org/statefiscalrankings

Well, considering that the figures are highly influenced by the right wing lie that pensions are a drain on the coffers (which only happens if funding in is cut) I'm not too confident of their methodology.

But frankly the Mercatus Centre's methodology is going to be shit no matter what. They're Chicago/Austrian School, and all their research will work to the free market conclusion anyway.

I'll read the full doc later to see where else they've holes in their thinking.

Yeah, I thought I posted this yesterday from mobile but must've lost my connection.  Mercatus Institute is super-hard core free market craziness (they are *constantly* lobbying the White House to remove *every* economic regulation).  They're essentially ranking the states by a handful of indicators, blended together in an opaque way, that is really answering the question: "when the whole system blows up for not being free market enough - and it will... it's only a matter of time - how badly will this particular state explode?"  Tazzy's correct - to take pension liabilities and stack them up as present debts is not a clear picture of economic burden.

Now, it's clear that some smaller states - ND, SD, Alaska, etc - have lots and lots of cash on hand.  They also have tiny little economies.  Big states have much much less cash on hand and big honking economies.  These things go hand in hand.