Tennessee : State Data and Comparisons : State Data Lab

TIA Data

2017 Financial State of Tennessee (Released 9/25/2018)

Tennessee owns more than it owes.

Tennessee has a $2,500 Taxpayer Surplus.™

Tennessee is a Sunshine State with enough assets to cover its debt.

Elected officials have created a Taxpayer Surplus™, which is each taxpayer's share of money available after state bills have been paid.

TIA's Taxpayer Surplus™ measurement incorporates both assets and liabilities, not just pension debt.

Tennessee has $18.1 billion of assets available to pay the state's bills totaling $13 billion.

Tennessee has $5 billion available after bills have been paid, which breaks down to $2,500 per taxpayer.

Tennessee's reported net position is inflated by $959.3 million, largely because the state defers recognizing losses incurred when the net pension liability increases.

Despite a recently implemented accounting standard meant to increase transparency, Tennessee still excludes $7.6 million of pension debt from its balance sheet. In addition, the state is still hiding $791.1 million of its retiree health care debt. A new accounting standard will be implemented in the 2018 fiscal year which will require states to report this debt on the balance sheet.

The state's financial report was released 174 days after its fiscal year end, which is considered timely according to the 180 day standard.