As Gov. Schweitzer touts Montana’s $340 million budgetary surplus, as Rep. Rehberg cites our state’s balanced-budget amendment as the key driver while pushing for a similar amendment at the national level, it bears consideration that 49 states have some kind of balanced-budget amendment or statute and yet all but eight were in the red at the end of the fiscal year.

I’ll repeat that.

Forty-nine states have some kind of balanced-budget amendment or statute and yet all but eight were in the red at the end of the fiscal year.

A recent report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities lists fiscal-year budget shortfalls for 42 states as well as Washington, D.C. Well, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 49 states (all but Vermont) have some sort of amendment or statute on the books that says the state must balance its budget. 

One might imagine Vermont is running a huge deficit. And it is, to the tune of $176 million. However, several of the states with the most stringent balanced-budget laws have deficits running in the billions.

Take Florida, for instance.  It has constitutional amendments that require the governor to submit a balanced budget, the legislature to pass a balanced budget and restrictions against carrying deficits over to subsequent years. And yet it reported a $3.7 billion budget shortfall.

Vermont is a much less populous state, so let’s be fair and compare the percentages.

Vermont’s $176 million shortfall constitutes 14.3% of its total general-budget fund. Florida’s $3.7 billion shortfall accounts for a smaller percentage, but it’s still 11.5%.

Forty-nine states have some kind of balanced-budget amendment or statute and yet all but eight were in the red at the end of the fiscal year.

That’s too much information to capture on a bumper sticker, so here you go.

Maybe it seems counter-intuitive, but it's true.