New York is at the top of the debt list in the latest U.S. Census data on state and local government finances.
As of 2009, New York’s state and local long-term indebtedness came to $15,202 per-capita, more than any state and 74 percent above the national average. In 2008, New York’s per-capita state and local debt load was $13,804 and ranked third, trailing only Alaska and Massachusetts.
Comparatively speaking, state and local debt in New York wasn’t much lighter when measured as a share of income, coming to $326 per $1,000 — 45 percent above average and narrowly trailing only Alaska. In the debt per $1,000 category, the Empire State’s #3 ranking was unchanged.
Tables based on the newly released 2009 Census data on state and local government finances have been updated at the Empire Center’s Data Bank.
You may also like
At mid-year, NY still far below most states in pandemic jobs recovery
New York has added private-sector jobs in all but three of the 38 months since the COVID-19 outbreak of March 2020—but the Empire State remains below its pre-pandemic employment level and continues to trail the national recovery.
On a seasonally adju Read More
At end of ’22, NY still near bottom in pandemic recovery
The more time passes since the spring 2020 Covid-19 outbreak, the more New York stands out among all states for the weakness of its post-pandemic employment recovery.
As of December, seasonally adjusted private employment in New York was still nearly 2 Read More
As leaves turn, NY’s post-pandemic recovery still has very far to go
New York was the national epicenter of the pandemic, and Governor Cuomo's "New York State on PAUSE" business shutdowns and other restrictions led, in short order, to the loss of nearly 2 million jobs in the first full month after the infection began spreading in the New York City area. Read More
More NY job gains in August—but employment needs to rise a lot further
New York's jobs report for August looked relatively strong—but only by comparison, that is, with what was generally regarded as a disappointing national number. On a seasonally adjusted basis, New York gained 28,000 private-sector jobs last month—a growth rate of 0.4 percent, according to preliminary monthly estimates from the state Labor Department. Read More
Empire State’s new budget is a bridge to nowhere
Looking ahead to an uncertain post-pandemic recovery, New York’s newly enacted state budget for fiscal year 2022 raises spending by staggering amounts that—barring an unlikely rapid return to peak 2019 economic activity in New York City—can't possibly be sustained for more than a few years. The budget is a mid-2020s fiscal disaster in the making: an incomplete bridge over a deepening river of red ink. Read More
NY Post-Pandemic Employment Tide Stopped Rising At Year’s End
New York's post-pandemic employment recovery came to a halt and moved into reverse in December, according to the state's for the final month of COVID-wracked 2020.
Private payroll employment in December was 966,000 jobs below the level of the previous Read More
Fewer Workers, Not More Jobs, Explains NY’s September Unemployment Rate Drop
New York State's unemployment rate has fallen sharply since the economically devastating pandemic lockdown last spring. But as state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli points out in his latest economic report, the jobless rate doesn't tell the whole story. Read More
It’s Official: New York State’s Second Quarter Economic Crash Was the Worst on Record
Further evidence of the massive damage done to New York’s economy by the coronavirus pandemic shutdown has emerged in the latest gross domestic product (GDP) data from the federal Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Affairs. Read More