Texas is getting a lot of attention for it's $8.8 billion surplus, created mostly by a boom in salex tax revenue (people spend more in a healthy economy) as well as taxes on oil and natural gas revenues. Mary Katharine Ham at Hot Air points out that Texas isn't the only state with a sunny fiscal outlook:
With a $500 million budget surplus and $2 billion in reserves, Indiana Governor-elect Mike Pence has pledged to give back some of that money when he takes office next week by cutting personal income taxes.
[. . .]
Iowa is looking at an $800 million surplus. Florida’s is more than $400 million. Michigan, which was in a recession years before the country entered one in 2007, has an extra $1 billion in its general funds.
She notes that all those states have something in common and suggests it is: Republican governors. I don't think we have to be that partisan about it. We can just say that those states are reaping the rewards of prudence and thrift, i.e. a sane fiscal policy. While insane states like California start circling the drain, we provide the good example for states that don't wish to court insolvency.
