Please take a good, close look at the status of your state's budget and debt - and report it here. (This thread is for Americans.) I was just looking at Hawai'i's budget, 'cause I'm mulling a move back there someday. Hawai'i has an egregious 4% excise tax (effectively a 'sales tax', except it is exacted on anyone who sells to the public. There is a smaller rate for wholesalers. Law is designed to milk the tourists, who on any given day make up ~20% of the population.) Of course it also has state tax, so everybody gets gouged. For the longest time, Hawai'i has run a comfortable budget SURPLUS. The state typically has a kitty of cash left over at the end of every year. In the next few days I'll pick out some specific numbers - lets try like this: 2007 State budget 2007 State deficit 2007 Federal funds sent to the state for budget items (schools, roads, ports, law enforcement etc. - states usually break this out in a line item.) end-2007 State debt end-2007 State debt per capita If we simply divide up the Federal deficit, every single American man, woman and child owes about $35k. Ouch. Interesting to see how the states stack up. Besides Hawai'i, I think Alaska is running a surplus. We all know MI and CA are deep in the red ... how much?? How 'bout other states? FL could be interesting given it is a low-tax state, no? So, some stats on your state and maybe a comment on your state re: special circumstances.