States, of course, don’t vote – individual people do (including individual Electors, a topic for another day). But looking across the 50 states, for the states called by AP to date for the Presidential election, there is a clear trend. States in the Democratic bucket tend to have state governments in much worse shape, financially, than the Republican states.
The average “Taxpayer Burden” calculated by Truth in Accounting for the Democratic states was $17,300 in the latest fiscal year, about ten times as high as the $1,600 burden calculated for the Republican states.
Looking ahead, fiscal federalism issues are not likely to lose a lot of steam. Federal “stimulus” and “relief” packages under consideration and debate have mixed costs and benefits for citizens and taxpayers in states of varying financial condition. Congressional/Executive branch interplay may get even more interesting in the months ahead – with the central bank part of the picture as well.