Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Texas Has a Lot of Debt

Because the economy has been better than in most other states, it is easy to forget how much debt the state has accumulated. The Truth in Accounting organization has calculated the total debt and the debt per taxpayer for all fifty states.  There are eleven states whose assets exceed liabilities and Texas is NOT one of those states. Texas ranks 27th out of 50 with a tax burden of -$8300 per taxpayer. A more complete analysis of Texas debt is shown in the chart following:

 Keep in mind that these figures do not include county and city debt.  Georgetown has and continues to accumulate bond debt, pension and healthcare obligations.

Georgetown, Williamson County, the school districts and the state need to reign in the spending to no more than population growth plus inflation!  Tell your elected representatives of your concern and that you expect them to reduce the growth in spending and quit financing government with more debt!

1 comment:

  1. There is a separate Texas Watchdog report that talks about local county and city excess bond debt. Oct. 21, 2015 - Watchdox TX report on excess bonding in TX
    http://franklincenterhq.org/12201/texas-watchdog-local-government-debt/

    WE are having similar problems in Florida where cities, counties or School Districts get voters to pass one penny sales tax referendums for 15 years, then use that the run up big debt to build expensive buildings, etc. The tax is coming up for a Nov. 3 ballot in Lake County, FL to renew it for the third time. It has already been used to provide $450-million in slush funds for the first two 15 year cycles, and now all the elected officials want to renew it again.

    My local government watchdog blog is at www.fiscalrangers.com Use it for ideas, or send me an email to be on my list at fiscalrangers@comcast.net

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