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Alaska More Indebted Than Any Other State
That from a NYTimes graphic accompanying their story on state debt woes growing too big to hide.
Via Tim O’Reilly, “Always seems to be the ones *talking* small govt….”
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8 Responses to “Alaska More Indebted Than Any Other State”
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by TMV, Joe Windish. Joe Windish said: Alaska more indebted than any other state http://bit.ly/d41C2R Always seems to be the ones *talking* small govt…. @timoreilly #TMVcomments [...]
How can this be true?
Alaska has so much excess money that it paid each and every man, woman and child, $1,300 in 2009. And has paid a “dividend” like that since 1982. This means that Sarah Palin has a received a government check her whole adult life.
Meanwhile the State was going broke?
The chart leaves out some key information to make an informed assessment…..what is the average duration of the obligation coming due?…….if the average duration is another 20 years out for Alaska, then Alaska could be in much better shape than Illinois and New Jersey where I suspect you have government workers retiring currently and therefore, much less time to fund the gap.
It's good to see this, not just because we may see Don Q. attack the Red States with relish again.
It's good to see this, too, because it might move some who haven't before to think about the federal government's position.
Yeah Illinois/NJ/california gaps are about right NOW…there is no way to argue that they aren't in the worst shape. Also another piece of information missing is projections about contributions. Some states are projecting that they will cover pension gaps by doubling or tripling taxes over the next 10 years, so they would look like it's met even though that's an insane assumption.
I'm telling you, I'm going to miss comments more than anyone! My prompt to Twitter & email has gone unanswered…
The article said that small states had bigger problems because their smaller economies. I looked for more on Alaska but didn't find it.
Exactly. Palin was a fiscal disaster for Alaska, just like she was a fiscal disaster for Wasilla. She really racked up the debts during her terms.
http://crooksandliars.com/2008/09/05/sarah-pali…
Joe W–
Just wanted to say how much I've enjoyed your writing.