How deep is NJ in debt? Very, very deep but not as bad as 2017

New Jersey is still weighed down by a staggering amount of outstanding and anticipated debt: $239 billion. But the amount it owes is slowly shrinking compared to the record-high set in 2017.

New Jersey owes $45.16 billion in bonded debt, money taxpayers must pay back to bondholders with interest. But that’s $937 million less than the $46.1 billion it owed in 2017. That’s about a 2 percent decrease.

"The state has really only done modest borrowing over the past couple of years," said Marcy Block, New Jersey analyst for credit rating agency Fitch Ratings. "If they continue down that path, it will continue to trend downwards."

The Garden State has $193.9 billion in obligations when looking at all non-bonded debt owed, which includes the pension as well as retiree health liabilities, loans and capital leases. That’s still an improvement and 10 percent drop from 2017, when New Jerseyans were on the hook for $215.8 billion. These numbers look huge next to previous years, but that's "an apples to oranges comparison" because auditors made changes in how they calculated the health benefit liabilities in 2017 and 2018, Block said. "But we still recognize that the number is exceptionally large."

Read more: https://www.dailyrecord.com/story/money/2019/06/03/new-jersey-state-debt-report-analysis/1301540001/
(Parsippany Daily Record)