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States’ Debts Total Over $4 Trillion

1 min readBy: Joseph Bishop-Henchman

A new report by State Budget Solutions’ Andrew Guevara estimates that states are $4 trillion in debt. Guevara adds outstanding state debt issues ($600.4 billion), unfunded pension obligations ($2.86 trillion), unfunded retiree health benefits ($606.8 billion), unemployment benefit loans from the federal government ($37.0 billion), and budget gaps ($133.0 billion).

Below is a chart of the total debt by state:

State Debt (thousands
of $)
Debt Per Capita
Alabama $60,412,502 $12,639
Alaska $27,962,377 $39,371
Arizona $59,220,240 $9,265
Arkansas $25,020,643 $8,581
California $612,054,955 $16,429
Colorado $80,386,294 $15,984
Connecticut $99,751,147 $27,909
Delaware $14,424,923 $16,065
Florida $139,156,956 $7,401
Georgia $97,478,050 $10,062
Hawaii $36,310,406 $26,693
Idaho $11,953,729 $7,626
Illinois $280,595,828 $21,869
Indiana $38,710,138 $5,970
Iowa $25,989,741 $8,531
Kansas $28,538,211 $10,002
Kentucky $63,268,507 $14,580
Louisiana $63,084,841 $13,916
Maine $17,692,888 $13,319
Maryland $81,502,963 $14,117
Massachusetts $97,940,986 $14,958
Michigan $125,329,485 $12,680
Minnesota $70,806,990 $13,350
Mississippi $38,278,314 $12,900
Missouri $66,307,890 $11,072
Montana $9,533,441 $9,635
Nebraska $7,805,175 $4,274
Nevada $41,883,947 $15,509
New Hampshire $14,955,434 $11,360
New Jersey $281,544,674 $32,023
New Mexico $37,802,200 $18,358
New York $305,308,390 $15,755
North Carolina $97,376,318 $10,212
North Dakota $6,255,605 $9,301
Ohio $240,236,606 $20,824
Oklahoma $36,952,387 $9,850
Oregon $58,019,973 $15,145
Pennsylvania $147,788,481 $11,635
Rhode Island $19,497,824 $18,524
South Carolina $56,539,512 $12,224
South Dakota $6,585,256 $8,088
Tennessee $35,239,489 $5,553
Texas $282,558,281 $11,237
Utah $24,792,086 $8,970
Vermont $6,043,582 $9,658
Virginia $65,105,037 $8,137
Washington $83,215,274 $12,375
West Virginia $22,941,837 $12,381
Wisconsin $81,154,800 $14,270
Wyoming $6,992,094 $12,406
Total $4,238,306,708 $13,728
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About the Author

Joseph Bishop-Henchman

Joseph Bishop-Henchman

Executive Vice President

Joe Bishop-Henchman is Executive Vice President at the Tax Foundation, where he analyzes state tax trends, constitutional issues, and tax law developments. Joe has testified or presented to officials in 36 states, testified before Congress six times, and has written over 75 major studies on tax policy.