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The Best and Worst Run States in America<br>
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<p><strong> 16. Idaho<br>
> Debt per capita: </strong> $2,232 (13th lowest)<br>
<strong>> Credit rating (S&P/Moody’s): </strong> AA+/Aa1<br>
<strong>> Unemployment rate: </strong> 4.0% (11th lowest)<br>
<strong>> Median household income: </strong> $47,861 (14th
lowest)<br>
<strong>> Poverty rate: </strong> 14.8% (25th highest)</p>
<p>According to an annual report on corruption from The Center for
Public Integrity, Idaho earns the second highest marks in the
country for its budgetary process. With responsible budgetary
practices, Idaho has assets on hand to cover 85% of all state
pensions. The average pension funded ratio among all states is
72%, by contrast. Idaho is able to effectively manage workers’
pensions despite having a much lower than average annual tax
revenue per capita. While the national average per capita tax
revenue is $2,657, Idaho collects on average only $2,190 annually
per state resident.<br>
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<p>How well run is your state? Assessing a state’s management
quality is no simple task. The current economic climate and
standard of living in any given state are not only the results of
recent policy choices and developments, but may also be dependent
on forces outside a state’s control and, often, decisions made
decades ago.</p>
<p>For each of the past six years, 24/7 Wall St. has attempted to
answer this question by surveying various characteristics of each
state. To determine how well states are managed, we examine key
financial ratios, as well as social and economic outcomes. This
year, North Dakota is the best-run state in the country for the
fourth consecutive year, while New Mexico replaced Illinois as the
worst-run state.</p>
<div id="dfp-in-text"> </div>
<p><strong><span style="color:#008000;"><a
href="http://247wallst.com/special-report/2015/12/02/the-best-and-worst-run-states-in-america-a-survey-of-all-50-4/2/"
style="color:#008000;">Click here to see how your state
performs.</a></span></strong></p>
<p>There is no comprehensive measure of a state government
administration and how well or poorly it runs the state. Selecting
appropriate criteria to compare the 50 states is difficult because
there is so much variation among them. Some states are rich in
natural resources, for example, while others rely on high-skilled
sectors, such as technology and business services. Some depend
disproportionately on one industry, while economies in other
states are more balanced. Further, some states are more rural,
while others are highly urbanized and densely populated.</p>
<p>As a result, policy decisions that may work in one state might
not work in another. For example, while taking on large amounts of
debt to fund a state’s spending is often fiscally irresponsible,
wealthier states arguably benefit from higher debt levels — they
can use the extra funds to pay for public welfare services and are
able to pay it back without much effort.<br>
Most of the conditions used to determine how well or poorly run a
state is do not tend to fluctuate a great deal from year to year.
Measures such as income, poverty, and violent crime rates do not
usually change meaningfully from year to year. Still, the rank of
some states changed significantly this year. Maine, West Virginia,
and Alaska each regressed by at least 10 spots. Alaska, this
year’s 18th-best run state, was seventh-best last year. Meanwhile,
four states improved by nearly 10 spots. Colorado improved from
17th-best to eighth-best.</p>
<p>This year, a number of the best-run states have again benefited
from an abundance of natural resources, although this can often
manifest as an overreliance. North Dakota, Wyoming, and Texas are
among the top 10 best-run states, and in all three, the mining
industry — which includes fossil fuel extraction — is a major
contributor to state GDP. Due in large part to the mining sector,
North Dakota, Texas and Wyoming led the nation in real GDP growth
in 2014. Alaska has utilized its oil wealth to build massive state
reserves and to pay its residents an annual dividend. However, the
state’s position fell this year largely due to falling oil prices.
Similarly, while North Dakota is the leader again this year, the
mining industry has been subject to wild fluctuations.</p>
<p>While some states’ economic fortunes are closely tied to the rise
and fall of individual industries, which are often outside their
control, each state must make the best of its own situation.
Governments, as stewards of their own economies, need to prepare
for the worst, including the collapse of a vital industry. Good
governance is about balancing tax collection and state expenditure
in a way that provides essential services to residents without
sacrificing a state’s long-term fiscal health. Many of the
best-run states in the country set money aside each year for
emergencies. For example, Alaska’s rainy day fund — reserves set
aside to be allocated in the event of unforeseen budget shortfalls
— are equal to 146.4% of its revenue, the highest such percentage
of any state.</p>
<p>While each state is different, states at both ends of the list
share certain characteristics. For example, people living in the
worst-run states tend to have lower standards of living. Violent
crime and poverty rates are typically higher in these states, and
the share of the population with at least a high school diploma
tends to be lower than the national rate.</p>
<p>The worst-run states also tend to have weak fiscal management,
reflected by low pension funding, sparsely padded coffers, and
poor credit ratings from Moody’s Investors Service and Standard
& Poor’s (S&P). Illinois, the second worst-run state in
America, received lower ratings than any other state from both
agencies. By contrast, the majority of the 10 best-run states have
perfect ratings from both agencies.</p>
<p>Unemployment rates are also relatively low in the nation’s
best-run states. North Dakota, the top-ranked state, has an
unemployment rate of 2.8%, the lowest of all states. Six of the 10
best-run states have among the 10 lowest unemployment rates.
Meanwhile, unemployment is much more prevalent in the worst-run
states. Louisiana and New Mexico, both among the lowest-ranked
states, have the nation’s fifth- and second-highest unemployment
rates, at 6.2% and 6.8%, respectively.<br>
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<p><b><br>
Ken<br>
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