WASHINGTON — According to a new study by the Pew Center on the States, California's problems are in a "league of their own," but the same pressures that drove the Golden State toward fiscal disaster are wreaking havoc in a number of states, with potentially damaging consequences for the entire country.
The Pew Center on the States compiled its list by scoring all 50 states according to six factors that contributed substantially to California's ongoing fiscal woes:
1) high foreclosure rates
2) increasing joblessness
3) loss of state revenues
4) the relative size of budget gaps
5) legal obstacles to balanced budgets - specifically, a super-majority requirement for some or all tax increases or budget bills
6) poor money-management practices
The Center named nine states, in addition to California, that are "particularly affected" by the recession. All of California's neighbors - Nevada, Arizona and Oregon and fellow Sun Belt member Florida were severely hit by the bursting of the housing bubble and landed on Pew's top 10 list of recession-stricken states facing a similar set of fiscal difficulties.
A Midwestern cluster comprising Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin emerged, too, as did the Northeastern states of New Jersey and Rhode Island.
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