Commonwealth Budget Problems?

For John, BLUF:  Do you trust the Great and General Court to spend wisely?  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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I am dubious about this headline from The New Boston Post, but it is another thing to worry about.  Mr Daniel Huizinga tells us:

Massachusetts in bottom five of nationwide financial rankings

And here is the lede plus two:

Can your state pay its bills? In coming years, a surprising number of states may be in trouble. A new report by the Mercatus Center sheds new light on the state of finances for all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Researchers Eileen Norcross and Olivia Gonzalez looked at several measures of fiscal solvency and uncovered some alarming trends.

Puerto Rico comes in dead last in the rankings for overall solvency, which is unsurprising given its recent debt crisis. But several other states are surprisingly close to Puerto Rico’s position, the study found.

A state’s budget solvency score measures whether a state is operating with consistent surpluses or deficits each year. Norcross and Gonzalez determined this value with an “operating ratio,” which indicates whether a state has enough revenue coming in (from taxes or other sources) to pay all of its expenses.

It is an indication that we have to pay attention.  Those ladies and gentleman on Beacon Hill are not to be trusted with our money.  And they are more likely to want a tax increase than to find a better way of doing business.

Regards  —  Cliff