I heard that my state (Arizona) is locked in a mano-a mano death match with California over which economy is worse. Are there any other contenders? Which state is in the worst financial shape?
Here’s a ranking of states by unemployment rates. Arizona isn’t doing too terribly relative to other places, the worst seem to be those hit by the collapse of the auto industry (Michigan) or that had very large housing bubbles (CA, Nevada, etc).
GDP per capita would be another good way to rank, but I can’t find those numbers for '09. Here’s a ranking for 2008 though the recession may have changed things.
To be clear, are you asking about the state governments themselves, or the economic activity of private entities within the state? Because while California, the state, is pretty well broke, private Californians are doing fairly well.
I’m talking about the state itself. How’s the budget? How much in the red is the state? How broke are they?
I guess it’s time I move to North Dakota or South Dakota or Nebraska (South South Dakota) 
Michigan is pretty fucked up. It had a bad economy before the crash, now it is just horrible and hopeless-seeming.
“The State has been operating with a structural deficit, a deficit that will not be eliminated by a more buoyant economy, over the past decade.
…
Michigan’s budget challenge will continue to grow through Fiscal Year 2017”
Illinois is in pretty bad shape; we’re chronically months behind in paying bills, but the state senate and the governor are at odds on what to do about it.
That said, I’d bet that we’re not in as bad shape as Michigan or California, among others.
This chart shows budget shortfalls of 31% for Alaska and Nevada, compared to just 12% for Michigan. California has by far the largest absolute shortfall at over $40 billion, but it doesn’t say how large a chunk that is as a percentage. Michigan’s relatively low figure is probably a little misleading since the state has been dumping spending for at least 8 years.
The chart doesn’t differentiate between discretionary and other spending.
Curiously, the state’s budget itself says the shortfall is only $19.9 billion (page 12, big .pdf).
We had a similar thread not long ago.
Ohio’s economy is struggling. Unemployment remains stubbornly high, manufacturing orders are tepid, and the housing market has been poor for several years. The state constitution requires that the budget be balanced, and it is - just barely, thanks to some painful cuts and some creative bookkeeping - for this year. But there’ll be some serious belt-tightening and/or new taxes next year, when either the incumbent Dem governor begins his second term, or his GOP challenger gets jammed.
The Alaska state government is nobody’s idea of the model of fiscal responsibility, but it’s not as bad as it seems. The general budget has a huge deficit every year but that’s approximately balanced most years by a big surplus in the permanent fund. The permanent fund is where a percentage of oil royalties go. I don’t know this year’s figures. I suspect the combined budgets of the state government and the fund are in deficit now, just not as badly as the chart linked to suggests.
According to this http://www.cnbc.com/id/31191092/The_Worst_Expected_2010_State_Budget_Gaps Nevada is worst, Arizona is 4th, and California a mere 6th.
It goes
- Nevada
- New York
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Florida
- California
- Vermont
- Connecticut
- Illinois
- New Jersey
- Washington
- Louisiana
- Hawaii
- Oregon
- Wisconsin