I mean, of the 50 American states, which one is the most well run?
I’m thinking about things like not having corruption, balancing its budget, having a good education system, keepings its roads and bridges repaired, etc etc.
Of course all states have their faults, but which is the most organized and well run?
(By the way, I’m going to make a sister thread to this one asking for the least well organized state. Put all negative comments there.)
New Hampshire and Vermont are pretty well run all things considered with the nod possibly going to Vermont. Of course, it is a largely rural, wealthy, homogeneous, and one of the least populated states so the obstacles are lower than for most other states.
I think it’s hard to say because if you live in a state, you see it’s dirty underside. When I was in Texas, I thought it was the most messed up state, then I moved to N.Carolina and saw that it had its problems too. Now that I’m in Arizona, I see its issues.
I think it must be either in the North East or the North West. How about Oregon?
Oregon has two running problems:
The voters are under the delusion that their taxes are skyhigh. So the state and schools never have enough money to do things right. That hurts a lot.
There are two Oregons. The metro areas vs the rural part. Classic blue vs. red. Since the blue parts are very, very blue which ticks off the red parts, that prevents a lot of solutions to common problems.
Plus the usual stupid stuff. Take the foresty industry. The output from the mills is generally steady but the number of employees has dropped significantly. So who do you blame? The tree-hugging environmentalists of course! (Automation? Never heard of it.)
In an article about the Franken/Coleman recount, Time Magazine calls Minnesota “the most organized, practical and cordial [state] in the Union”
So I guess that is a big vote for the good state of Minnesota.
And, come on, they have Rose Nylund (also Sue Ann Nivens) AND Mary Richards!
My first thought was also of Vermont.
New York, despite its recent mini-client 9 scandal, is generally ok, especially considering the difference in attention paid politically to the city and everywhere else (and everywhere everywhere else, to everyone that thinks Albany is “Upstate NY”). Our problem with the budget is largely caused by us being the bailout for other states. We pay a hugely disportionate amount to help out other states and their problems.
All in all though, meh, I could be in rural Alabama… (kidding, to any of you out there).
I can’t speak for all the issues, but certainly when it comes to roads Georgia must be near the top (with the exception of the metro Atlanta sewage project). The roads are very well maintained, something you can see when crossing over the state line into the Carolinas. It is very obvious to me how good it was in Georgia now that I have moved to California!
It road maintenance is what we’re looking at, I nominate Wisconsin. Hoo boy, is there a difference when you cross from Illinois (obviously nowhere near the best run state) into Wisconsin.
I don’t know anything else about Wisconsin, though. Good roads, lots of cheese.
We’ve got a $12.5 Billion deficit next year.
And that’s much more as a result of the collapse of the Wall Street bubble than helping other states.
In June 2007 the top 16 banks paid $173 million in states taxes, June 2008 $5 million.
In addition to Spitzer’s implosion, you’ve got a major revolt among the new Democratic majority in the Senate where 3 Senators are holding the majority hostage and the elected Comptroller resigned amid felony charges of defrauding the government.
I can’t quite characterize that as a state with its act together.
Gripe all you will about Texas, but we have a 2 billion dollar surplus, AFTER socking away 5.7 billion into the Rainy Day Fund, and another 3 billion for property tax cuts.
This is after a major hurricane hit the state and all the other economic stuff… so you could make the argument, that among the larger states, Texas has its financial act together these days.
jonesj2205, guess you’re right, I knew we had a deficit but seemed to forget about it when I wrote the post and went back to my old anti-state-bail-out rant I’ve repeated the past several years.
But what does “well run” mean? For instance Mussolini got the trains to run on time. Al Copone had a well run, well honed organization, full of crime, but it was run well.
So I think the OP would do better to ask what he really wants to know. After all a non-corrupt state may be so fair that it’s inefficient. I have seen offices like that, too many Indians and no chiefs so to speak
Doesn’t Delaware always rise to the top when we do threads about “the states no one ever thinks about”? I would think since no one thinks/talks about Delaware (except Joe Biden), they must have their shit together.