Tipsheet

Drowning In Debt: These States Are Approaching A Point Of No Return

Having grown up in New Jersey, you understand that Democrats are a tax and spend party and even liberals in the state understand it. The Garden State is a case study in mass exodus; it’s just too expensive to live there anymore. Are there signs that the Democrats get it? Maybe—the heavily Democratic legislature in Trenton had to tell Governor Phil Murphy that his tax increase agenda was more or less not going to happen. Taxes still went up, but it was not the insane proposal the governor’s office had pushed. Still, I doubt Demorats in these states will find rational solution to their fiscal woes. After decades of irresponsibility, these states are approaching a day of reckoning. It's the usual blue state madness crew: New Jersey, New York, Illinois, and California. For some, pension payments are a struggle (via Fox Business):

Connecticut may be the richest state in the country, on a per capita basis, but it's racked up a sizable debt worth more than $53 billion – and it could be taxpayers who are forced to bail out the Constitution State, according to the former governor of Indiana.

“Someone’s going to the barbershop,” Mitch Daniels, a Republican, said during an interview with FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on Thursday. “The first will be the taxpayers, already beleaguered in some of these states.”

And Connecticut isn’t the only state struggling with a debt crisis: California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York are unable to make pension payments to retired government workers.

In Illinois, for instance, vendors wait months to be paid by a government that’s $30 billion in debt, and one whose bonds are just one notch above junk bond status, according to Daniels. New York’s more than $356 billion in debt; New Jersey more than $104 billion; and California more than $428 billion.

My suggestion: if you live in these states, run!