Trego's Mountain Ear

Truth in Accounting has issued its 2025 Financial State of the States report. Half the states didn’t have enough money to pay all of their bills. Montana, on the other hand, was 8th from the top – Fact #2 was “The outcome was a $3.5 billion dollar surplus, which breaks down to $8,600 per taxpayer.” One way of looking at this is that our legislators have been very responsible in fiscal matters. The other perspective is that they have overtaxed everyone in the state. I kind of suspect they’d prefer the first perspective – but taxing Montanans for 3.5 billion more than the government needs makes a credible case that they have overtaxed us. Definitely no austerity budgets in Helena.

The 2025 Financial State of the States report is available at the link. North Dakota was #1 – with a surplus of $63,300 per taxpayer. South Dakota was #9, with a surplus of $8,200. On the other hand, New Jersey scored #50, in the hole for $44,500 per taxpayer – just for covering the 2025 expenses. California beat New Jersey, ranked 46th, in the hole for $21,800 for each taxpayer. Illinois ranked 48th, in the hole for $38,800 for each taxpayer. Maine ranked 25th – with a surplus of $100 per taxpayer.

Click the link, and get the whole report. These excerpts are just to motivate you to dig deeper, and see how the states differ.