When governor candidate Tom Corbett talks about Pennsylvania being a national leader, this probably isn’t what he means:
A report issued by the Council of State Governments marks Pennsylvania as fourth among the 31 states suffering from unemployment debt and borrowing from the federal Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, and fifth among the per capita placed upon the state’s taxpayers. … if the current level is not addressed, by 2018 the unemployment debt fund could grow to $7 billion.
In looking at the graph above, it’s easy to write off Pennsylvania as not doing too poorly, what with California way in the lead. But then, California, Michigan, and New York are not exactly the kind of states one wants to be in the company of in terms of reasonably leveraged pals.
And once you get down below Texas, things drop off very quickly.