WASHINGTON — Personal debt may be going out of style, but government debt remains very much in vogue, Tuesday’s election results show.
Facing ballot measures across the country, and despite bleak budget pictures, voters approved nearly every state- level bond measure on display, including $315 million in Alaska for transportation projects, $900 million in California for veterans’ aid and $400 million in Pennsylvania for water and sewer improvements.
But voters roundly rejected proposals to raise taxes — as in Colorado, where sales-tax and mineral-tax hikes were rejected — or lower them — as in Massachusetts and North Dakota, where tax-limiting ideas garnered about 30 percent.
This preference for debt-supported spending over tax increases is nothing new, experts said. But as states face massive budget shortfalls and struggle to cut programs, ballooning debt could begin to affect how much money states can spend before they face downgrades by credit-rating agencies that would make future borrowing more expensive.
“Raising taxes has emerged as this politically radioactive move,” said Sujit Canagaretna, senior fiscal analyst with the Council of State Governments, “so what do you do in turn? You end up borrowing.”
