Despite Gov. Murphy’s Happy Talk, Another Study Ranks NJ Dead Last for Fiscal Health

Another report comparing the fiscal health of the 50 states, another last place finish for New Jersey.  Gov. Murphy likes to talk about his fiscal responsibility but the numbers say otherwise. 

A recent Cato Institute study looked at the audited 2022 financial reports ranked the 50 states by their Unrestricted Net Position (UNP).  UNP is essentially the “net worth” of a state, which measures a state’s assets versus its liabilities (which include debt and unfunded pension liabilities).  A negative UNP means that has more liabilities than assets.  UNP is then divided by the state’s population to arrive at a UNP per capita figure.

Here are the bottom five states:

50.  New Jersey: total UNP -$204 billion; UNP per capita -$22,040.

49.  Connecticut: total UNP -$65 billion; UNP per capita -$18,275.

48.  Illinois: total UNP -$207 billion; UNP per capita -$16,404.

47.  Massachusetts: total UNP -$72 billion; UNP per capita -$10,345.

46.  Hawaii: total UNP -$10 billion; UNP per capita -$7,398.

In other words, each New Jersey citizen effectively “owes” $20,040.

Cato’s study reaches the same conclusion as Truth In Accounting’s 2023 report, which ranked New Jersey dead last among the states for its debt-per-taxpayer — for the 8th time in 9 years (New Jersey was 49th in 2021).  Tellingly, New Jersey has received an “F” for every year Phil Murphy has been governor.

Note that every one of the states in Cato’s study is a longstanding “blue” state, with their state legislatures having generally been under Democratic control for a long time.  They also have powerful government unions that contribute almost entirely to Democrats and hold enormous influence over the Democrat-controlled legislatures. Poor fiscal health and powerful government unions appear to go hand in hand.  Unfortunately, it’s the taxpayers who are on the hook.

All of which is to say that New Jersey is the prime example of a blue state in poor fiscal health.  Gov. Murphy likes to claim that he has been a responsible fiscal steward, but the numbers show otherwise.  In fact, Murphy has been a status quo governor: he was elected with the support of New Jersey’s deep-pocketed government unions (particularly, the NJEA, his biggest benefactor) and has governed for their benefit.  Murphy has massively increased state spending while doing little to address New Jersey’s long-term debt problem. 

Great for Murphy, great for the government unions, lousy for New Jersey citizens and taxpayers.