CHICAGO — North Dakota holds the strongest finances of any state for a second straight year, while 24 states lacked the assets to pay what they owe, according to an annual report released Thursday by a Chicago-based fiscal watchdog group.
Truth in Accounting, in its 17th Financial State of the States report, found North Dakota closed out fiscal 2025 with a $21 billion cushion beyond what its bills required. That equals a Taxpayer Surplus of $72,300 per taxpayer, the highest in the nation, a figure that reflects each taxpayer share of the surplus rather than money sent back to residents.
The state leans on its Legacy Fund, a savings pool fed by oil taxes. Alaska, Wyoming, Utah and Tennessee rounded out the top five, with surpluses ranging down to $11,400 per taxpayer in Tennessee.
New Jersey ranked last again, its $162.3 billion gap translating into a Taxpayer Burden of $45,800. Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts and California filled out the bottom five, and the top and bottom groups were unchanged from a year earlier.
Across all 50 states, governments held $2.23 trillion in assets against $2.85 trillion in bills. Those bills included unfunded pensions of $775 billion and $490 billion owed for other retiree benefits, mostly health care.
Most states improved in 2025 because strong market returns lifted pension assets. Sheila Weinberg, the group’s founder and chief executive, urged lawmakers to use good years to fully fund benefits already promised rather than expand them, warning that investment gains can vanish in a downturn.
