Montana is #9...and That's Good!

Montana ranks ninth best among the 50 states for its overall fiscal condition in the 2012 budget year, a new study published for a George Mason University center concluded.

That overall ranking was determined after using four “solvency indices” in the study by Sarah Arnett. It was published by the university’s Mercatus Center, a market-oriented think tank. 

Here are the rankings by solvency indices for fiscal 2012, along with Montana’s ranking for each:

— Cash solvency, a liquidity measurement that takes into account the cash that a state can easily access to pay its bills in the near term: Montana ranked fifth best.

— Budget solvency, which measures a state’s ability to come up with enough revenue to cover its expenses over a fiscal year. Montana ranked eighth.

— Long run solvency, which is a measurement of a state’s ability to use incoming revenue to cover all its expenditures, including guaranteed pension benefits and infrastructure maintenance. Montana ranked ninth.

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