This is the Cato Dilly Podcast for Wednesday, August 2, 2017.

I'm Caleb Brown.

States have begun to at least officially recognize the costs of pension plans to

public sector workers. How has that affected? recognize the

costs of pension plans to public sector workers. How has that affected the fiscal health of states?

Eileen Norcross has crunched the numbers on states fiscal health for the

Mercatus Center.

We spoke last week about how well states are

stewarding taxpayer money. You've had this project going for several years now.

What in the trends now that you can establish a trend of some

sort what are the clear trends I think you can see the recovery from the

recession in many states cash positions have improved

which means rainy day funds have been built up a bit.

You see better budgetary balance in general.

States are able to have their revenues match their expenses. On the

other hand you have a growth and a pressure in liabilities for many of the

states, not all, some have improved, but most states see increasing pressure especially in pension

liabilities relative to the income of their residents.

What has driven the increase in liabilities?

A few things, it depends on the state.

Some states happen to be more partial to issuing debt.

So in the states that are more poorly ranked,

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