New Jersey's government appears to be near approving an annual debt analysis.
The Assembly has already unanimously approved a bill that would mandate the annual analysis. The Senate Budget and Appropriation Committee has approved the bill. The Senate will soon vote on the bill.
The bill would require the analysis be presented in the state's annual debt report.
"The purpose of the bill is to enable a more fully informed fiscal policy discussion on the state's long-term debt portfolio to ensure sufficient financial capacity for essential capital projects," the bill, S1739, states.
Among the requirements of the bill would be that the analysis:
- provide an estimate of revenues available for debt service in the following 10 years;
- provide an estimate of additional debt issuance for the next 10 years for the state's existing borrowing programs;
- provide a schedule of debt service requirements;
- include a listing of pertinent debt ratios including debt service to state revenues and debt service to per capital personal income;
- have estimates of debt capacity available over the next 10 fiscal years associated with various debt ratios of debt service to state revenues;
- offer comparisons of the state's debt ratios with the ratios for the 10 most populous states;
- and present a listing of the state's debt ratings and an explanation of the criteria used by the ratings agencies.
