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Message: [QUOTE="Fairfield Fan, post: 2317641, member: 6911"] N to true. The state of Connecticut's combined state and municipal bonded debt as a percentage of gross state product ranks Connecticut #27 among the fifty states. The quirk of Connecticut is that it is one of just two states without functioning county-level government. That has meant that a number of functions that would normally be performed by counties, or county-level school districts, are pushed up to the state level. So while the state looks more debt-heavy than other states, the municipalities are far less debt-heavy, and operate far smaller governments relative to population. That's the flip side of the fiscal coin. Nearly a quarter of Connecticut's total debt was for school construction, which would almost never show up at the state government level. Another 10% went for a pension obligation bond to shore up the teachers pension fund, again bonded debt and pension debt that only shows up in one other state- New Jersey. That's why, faced with a deficit, Governor Malloy suggested that the municipalities begin to pick up a portion of the required contributions to the teachers pension fund, a contribution, I might add, that takes up 7% of the state's budget. And that is something that only shows up in one other state's budget- again, New Jersey. So Connecticut is far, FAR, from bankrupt. And the notion that it is in any way "bankrupt" is absolutely false. [/QUOTE]