A recent report from Truth in Accounting has revealed that 27 states across America, more than half, ended fiscal year 2023 with a deficit, meaning they did not have enough money on hand to cover their financial obligations.
While many states are still rolling in the dough from all the cash that was sent their way during the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) "pandemic," all that money will soon run out. By 2026, federal funds are expected to "dry up," which means many states will have to drastically change the way they manage money and provide services to the public.
"During the pandemic, federal support to states exceeded $800 billion, allowing states to temporarily cut taxes and increase spending," reports The Economic Times of India. "However, these surpluses were short-lived."
"This financial strain could lead to higher taxes, reduced public services, and cuts to benefits programs, leaving many Americans concerned about the future."
(Related: Did you know that Megabus, America's largest private bus company, filed for bankruptcy earlier this year?)
Unfunded retirement liabilities killing America
The states currently in the worst shape financially include Connecticut, New Jersey, Illinois and Massachusetts. These states are expected to face the largest impacts once the hammer drops, possibly leading to more tax increases and cuts to public services.
The biggest factor contributing to state debt is unfunded retirement liabilities, reports indicate. Upwards of 86 percent of state and local government workers had access to their pensions as of March 2022. The private sector, conversely, is basically the other way around with very limited access.
While public workers need pensions, as does everyone for that matter, Oliver Giesecke from Stanford University warns that they are a costly form of debt that diverts funding away from public projects and infrastructure.
The short of it is that the more time that passes, the worse things are going to get for everyday Americans who will have to pay increasingly more for increasingly less. This means poverty will increase along with all the other horrors that typically accompany it.
"Some Americans are already moving from high-tax states with financial challenges to low-tax states with better fiscal stability," reports explain. "This trend may accelerate if tax hikes and benefit cuts intensify in states like Connecticut, Illinois, and New Jersey."
"Families seeking better opportunities may increasingly prioritize states with balanced budgets and lower tax burdens."
Alaska and Wyoming are among the states that are in better financial shape compared to their counterparts, which is why those with means are fleeing there. Everyone else will get to see firsthand what many decades of Wall Street greed and other corruption does to a nation in the end.
"We find that about $70 out of a $1,000 in allocated [federal] aid ended up in pension contributions," says Oliver Giesecke, a research fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution.
To avoid pointing the finger at the true culprits, i.e., the private Federal Reserve and the crooks who have run America into the ground, CNBC is instead blaming deferred maintenance on infrastructure, extreme weather from "climate change," and an aging population on these state budget shortfalls.
"Virtually every state made a tax cut," adds Justin Theal, a senior officer at The Pew Charitable Trusts' Fiscal 50 project, about what COVID prompted many states to do as far as their budgets are concerned. "Virtually every state also increased employee pay for public employees."
"The implication is that fiscal flexibility is really declining across the states."
The U.S. economy is toast once all the dust settles. Find out more at Collapse.news.
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