New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Washington, D.C. are the U.S. cities with the Best Mass Transit (Walking) Scores. This means that these cities are best suited to take people where they need to go using subways, bikes, busses, trains and other means of public transportation so that they don’t have to use their cars. This ranking factors accessibility, convenience, pedestrian friendliness, and the walkability of any address.

A good Mass Transit Score is great for the planet because, according to the EPA, motor vehicles collectively cause 75 percent of carbon monoxide pollution in the United States. By taking public transit whenever we can we can help to reduce our cities' carbon footprint and improve their Mass Transit Score.  READ MORE

On March 31, WalletHub released their annual Tax Burden by State report for 2021 in which they evaluate and rank the “tax burden” for the citizens of each of the 50 states. This report differs from Truth in Accounting’s evaluation of “Taxpayer Burden” because WalletHub’s tax burden measures the proportion of total personal income residents pay in state and local taxes while Taxpayer Burden from Truth in Accounting the amount of money needed by states to pay bills divided by the number of state taxpayers to come up with the Taxpayer Burden.

The findings from this report show that New York state has the highest tax burden at 12.79% followed by Hawaii (12.19%) and Vermont (10.75%). This representation of how much total personal income residents pay in state and local taxes helps apprehensive taxpayers understand how taxes this year will affect their finances in this time of crisis in a simple and comprehensible way.  READ MORE

As of 2019, New York City had $115.8 billion worth of unfunded retiree health care benefits. Unfunded retiree health care benefits make up most of what is called “other post-employment benefits” or OPEB. OPEB are the benefits that a person receives after they retire that are NOT part of their pension. 

OPEB debt is the main contributing factor to the $333.5 billion in city-level debt. Last year, there was a $160.1 billion shortfall in OPEB funds. This is partially because one of the ways cities make their budgets look balanced is by shortchanging public pension and OPEB funds. 
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The state of Washington has a minimum wage of $13.69 per hour making it the state with the highest minimum wage. Washington is followed closely by California which has a minimum wage of $13 per hour, unless you are part of a company of more than 26 employees, in which case the minimum wage is$14 per hour.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, but there are five states that have not adopted a state minimum wage and use the federal minimum wage. These states are Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. The states of Georgia and Wyoming actually have a minimum wage below $7.25 per hour.  READ MORE

Financially, 2019 has been New York's worst year so far. New York ranked last among the country's 75 most populous cities in Truth in Accounting’s Financial State of the Cities report with a Taxpayer Burden of $68,200. New York City had $64.8 billion available to pay $259.2 billion worth of bills, resulting in a $194.4 billion shortfall.

New York's Taxpayer Burden in 2019 was $9,200 more than the Taxpayer Burden recorded in 2014. The New York Taxpayer Burden increasingly worsened over the past six years.  READ MORE

This election looks different than in previous years. Voter turnout is on course to be an all-time high. A week before the election Texas had already surpassed its 2016 voter turnout. The state has also seen a 12 percent increase in registered voters since the 2016 election. Texas saw a low voter turnout in 2016 with only 54 percent of Texans voting. Texas has the second-most electoral votes at 38. 

Texas was not alone in its low voter turnout. Only two states had more than 70 percent of registered voters vote. Those states were Maine and Wisconsin with 72.7 percent and 70.5 percent respectively.   READ MORE

Alaska has earned first place in our 2020 Financial State of the State report for the 10th year in a row. After paying all their bills Alaska had $21 billion left over for future bills, which is divided out to $77,000 per Alaskan taxpayer.

Alaska’s pensions are only 67.5 percent funded with  $4.8 billion in unfunded benefits. But Alaska has fully funded its retiree health care benefits.

We have estimated that Alaska will lose $3 billion due to COVID-19, but the state is seemingly well prepared for this economic loss.  READ MORE

New Jersey ended fiscal year 2019 with $189 billion of debt, meaning each New Jersey taxpayer would need to pay $57,900 to pay off the state’s debt. New Jersey has only set 37 cents for every dollar promised in pension benefits. This has resulted in the state owing $95.7 billion for its promised pensions. They have not set aside any money for retiree health care benefits, meaning future taxpayers are on the hook for $76.8 billion owed for retiree health care. 

2020 marks the seventh consecutive year that New Jersey has earned the last place in our Financial State of the States. Where did your state rank? You can view the full report here.  READ MORE

​New York spent $24,040  on each of its 2.7 million students in 2019. This has more than doubled since 1999. New York has seen a large decrease in the number of students in public schools, with about 170,000 fewer students than in 1999. New York has the fourth-highest amount of students in public schools behind California, Texas, and Florida, which are the states with the largest population. There are 12 students for every teacher in New York state, which is below the 50-state average of 15.  READ MORE

Illinois has the largest unfunded pensions in the United States. In 2018, Illinois owed $139.7 billion in unfunded pensions. That is 746 percent more than the 50-state average. The state has only set aside 39 cents for every dollar that was promised in benefits. Illinois unfunded pensions make up the largest portion of the state’s overall $222.3 billion debt. 

In 2019, Illinois’ unfunded pension debt grew to $144 billion and the overall debt grew $4 billion to $226 billion.  READ MORE