Public borrowing and debt
Chris Edwards at the Cato Institute argues that governments should limit borrowing and get rid of state and local defined-benefit pension plans as a way of curbing corruption.
My (now) colleague John Reitmeyer of the Star-Ledger/Record Statehouse Bureau details the recent history of the use of debt in New Jersey, writing that the state has increased borrowing 700 percent over the past two decades. The state got around the constitution by setting up authorities that are allowed to issue debt without voter approval - but voters, too, gave the go-ahead for the state to borrow about 50 times in the last 60 years.
Bloomberg’s Dunstan McNichol also wrote last week about a report saying New Jersey’s debt grew to 33.9 billion, but I can’t link that because, well, y’all don’t have terminals. But you can read AP’s story on the same New Jersey debt report.
