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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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