Everyone knows the old saying: “If you find yourself in a deep hole, stop digging.”  But in his haste to please his public sector union pals, Gov. Murphy keeps digging the hole deeper.  In the end, it is NJ citizens who will pay the price.

Forbes Magazine recently updated just how deep NJ’s debt hole is.   According to Forbes’ calculations (which added deferred outflows of resources to assets, and deferred inflows to liabilities), which were helpfully sorted by BuryPensions, NJ’s total assets were $74 billion and its total liabilities were $273 billion, or a staggering 369% of its assets.  This is the worst ratio of any state.  Even broke IL came in at 360%.

Notably, the five most indebted states (NJ, IL, NY, MA, CT) are deep “blue” states with politically powerful public sector unions, as are nine out of the ten most indebted states.  So, with its politically dominant public sector unions, it is sad but unsurprising that NJ is the absolute worst in the nation.  

Yet Gov. Murphy is borrowing another $4.5 billion so he can take care of his public sector union pals, who in turn pump millions into his political campaigns.  Murphy knows that he’ll be long gone when NJ’s debts come due, leaving future generations of NJ citizens to pay these enormous bills.