The U.S. Cities Mired In The Most Debt

Truth in Accounting has released its 2020 Financial State of Cities report, highlighting the fiscal health of America’s 75 most populous cities. Statista’s Niall McCarthy notes that the study found that this year, 63 cities do not have enough money to pay their bills and total municipal debt now stands at $323 billion.

It ranked the cities according to their taxpayer burden or surplus which is the amount each taxpayer would have to pay to clear municipal debt with nothing, such as benefits and services, in exchange.

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New York has $62.7 billion available to pay $249.4 billion worth of bills which breaks down to a burden of $63,100 per taxpayer.

In Chicago, each taxpayer would have to pay $63,100 in future taxes without anything in return while Hononulu has the third-highest burden at $26,400.

Some cities are run better than others with Irvine, California and Washington D.C. notable examples. The former has a surplus of $4,100 per taxpayer while D.C. has a surplus of $3,500.