California — a state whose officials love to tout it as the world’s fifth largest economy — is late producing a report on its own financial health for the sixth year in a row.

This impending crisis may lack the recent drama that the balanced budget requirement periodically imposes. But if the growing problem of Californians paying too much money for sub-par government services is left unaddressed, the foundations for a prosperous economy will be undermined.

The easiest way to avoid debt is through prudent policies in which the state’s annual domestic spending is substantially less over time than the state’s annual gross domestic product, a sort of economic husbandry Connecticut has not practiced for decades.

However, Philadelphia also ranked near the bottom, 72 out of 75, for cities ranked for how well they’re run by Truth in Accounting.

That organization found the city needs $11.2 billion to pay bills and has a taxpayer burden of $20,400 per taxpayer. Meaning if all bills were to be paid in one year, that’s how much each taxpayer would owe. Truth in Accounting gave Philadelphia a grade of “F.”

"The state doesn't have money sitting around that can be used for settlements like this," said Sheila A. Weinberg, founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting. "To pay for this settlement, taxes will have to be raised or services and benefits will have to be cut. The other option is to even underfund the pension and retiree health care benefits even more."

Hawaii is the first to settle a climate change lawsuit, but it may not be the last. The case may set a precedent in other states where young people have filed lawsuits over climate concerns, according to an op-ed written by Cara Horowitz, executive director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the institute's communications director, Evan George.

A report by the nonprofit organization Truth in Accounting arrived the week early voting started for the Longview mayoral election in May.

That assessment, though, was based off old information and uses a standard that Truth in Accounting established that measures government finances differently than is accepted practice.

We've all felt some mistrust towards the government. We're trying to rebuild that trust alongside other nonprofits, educators, policy-makers, public servants, and journalists. We're sad to see that the Longview News-Journal didn't see that mission when covering our special report on the city of Longview, TX.

Dallas Cothrum: An 8-point plan for the next Dallas city manager: stop virtue signaling, control spending, improve customer service, break down silos,...

Includes "Not surprisingly, Truth in Accounting, a nonprofit group, earlier this year gave Dallas a sobering D grade for its finances, placing it alongside Houston and Austin toward the bottom of the class."

One-party rule in action: According to the group Truth in Accounting, Chicago continues to live up to its moniker “Second City” in at least one respect: it has thesecond-worstdebt load of any big city in America—about $43,000 per taxpayer, or almost $40 billion in total.