Massachusetts Taxpayer Burden Is Among the Worst in the Nation

Truth in Accounting's (TIA) annual "Financial State of the States" report for 2025 is not good news for Massachusetts taxpayers, whose share of the state's debt is unimaginable.

The report states, "When states do not have enough money to pay their bills, TIA takes the money needed to pay bills (the shortfall) and divides it by the estimated number of state taxpayers."

"We call the resulting number a 'Taxpayer Burden," says TIA.

"Conversely, a 'Taxpayer Surplus' is the amount of money left over after all the state's bills are paid, divided by the estimated number of taxpayers in the state," the report says.

TIA ranks the states based on these numbers.

TIA found 25 states, including Massachusetts, that did not have enough money to pay their bills. Collectively, the states have $2.2 trillion in assets, $832 billion in pension debt, $2.9 trillion in debt, and $514 billion in "Other-Post Employment Benefit" (OPEB) debt.

The report states, "When liabilities are offset against assets available, the states had unfunded debt totaling $765 billion at the end of the 2024 fiscal year." It further states, "Unfunded retirement liabilities were the largest contributing factor to state-level debt."

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TIA includes Massachusetts in its "Bottom Five Sinkhole States," ranked 47th, behind California and ahead of only Illinois, Connecticut, and New Jersey.

TIA says Massachusetts needs $69.7 billion to pay its bills. That's a Taxpayer Burden of $24,900, earning the state a failing financial grade.

While Massachusetts received "substantial temporary federal aid" since the COVID outbreak in 2020, TIA says, "As this aid declines, and national budget tightening continues, future funding may return to more typical levels."

The only New England state to show a surplus in TIA's report was 25th-ranked Maine. New Hampshire ranked 26th, Rhode Island 37th, and Vermont 43rd.