I don't entirely trust those counters.
Here is the Nebraska counter:
http://www.usdebtclock.org/state-debt-clocks/state-of-nebraska-debt-clock.htmlPopulation: 1,844,400
Unemployment: 37,597 (2% of total pop, 6% of working age residents)
On food stamps: 363, 032 (19.6% of the total pop. Wow! 1 out of 5)
Revenue: $16 Billion/yr (I worked at Revenue. That's about right)
Spending: $21 Billion
Debt per person: $7,970
I doubt the implication that Nebraska is spending $4 Billion more per year than it is taking in as revenues.Every state except Vermont has a balanced-budget amendment, which is a constitutional rule requiring that the state cannot spend more than its income. Nebraska is a balanced budget state.
Nebraska’s “balanced budget” requirement comes in the form of a limit to the issuance of debt. Article 13, Section 1 of the 1875 Constitution says the State may not contract debts greater than $100,000. Nebraska law forbids the carrying over of a deficit from one year to the next. In spite of this law, budget deficits were reported on the State’s Budgetary Comparison Schedules within the last three years’ annual reports.
The statement for the year ending June 30, 2012 is here:
http://das.nebraska.gov/accounting/cafr/cafr2012.pdfIt states:
Since the State’s Constitution generally prohibits the State from incurring debt, the Statement of Net Assets presents few long-term liabilities (shown as non current liabilities), which total only $550 million ($501 million in 2011). The majority of such liabilities are for claims payable for workers’ compensation, medical excess liability, litigation, unemployment insurance, and employee health insurance totaling $118 million for 2012 ($137 million for 2011), Medicaid claims for $252 million ($190 million in 2011), and the calculated amount for vested sick leave due employees when they retire and accrued vacation of $139 million in 2012 ($130 million for 2011). Other minor amounts of long-term liabilities consist chiefly of capital lease obligations (See Note 8 to the Financial Statements), which totaled $25 million at June 30, 2012 and $15 million of obligations under other financing arrangements (See Note 9 to the Financial Statements). There was also a net pension obligation of $1.2 million (See Note 12 to the Financial Statements).
...
At the end of June 30, 2012, the State is able to report positive balances in all of the three categories of net assets.
I was working at Revenue when the tax receipts fell dramatically following 9/11. Revenue normally hired 70 or more temporary workers during the tax season, but didn't have the money to pay them during the crunch. The tax commissioner at the time, Mary Jane Egar, did an excellent job of keeping Revenue expenditures under control. When she asked employees to spend time on the mail line, and other tasks that temps did, in addition to their regular work, she was on the mail line as well.
She ate her own dog food. Because I have reasonable evidence negating the Nebraska "debt counter", I view the Federal counter with suspicion.
