The Institute for Truth in Accounting has just produced a study naming the states with the best fiscal practices and financial stability (sunshine states, it calls them), and those with the worst (sinkhole states). The list of states with the worst fiscal practices is dominated by those places where public sector union levels are among the highest in the country, including Connecticut, New Jersey, Illinois and Hawaii. That's not surprising, considering that unfunded pension promises made by politicians to government workers figure heavily in the debt burden of these states. By contrast, the list of so-called sunshine states is dominated by places with a low-level of public sector unionization. Read 'em and weep, as they say.



Join the conversation