Surplus & Fiscal Health › Methodology
Surplus & Fiscal Health Power Rankings — Methodology
Field: 50 states. Accountable official: Governor. Cadence: 2x/year. Data retrieved 2026-06-18.
FLAGSHIP. v1 uses two real Census fiscal-structure metrics (federal-transfer dependence and own-source revenue capacity). The full surplus/debt/pension/credit-rating set needs Pew Fiscal 50 / NASBO files + a ratings feed (pending).
Weights are public so the ranking cannot be called rigged. Each dimension is normalized 0–100 across all ranked states (min–max; inverted where lower is better), multiplied by its weight, and summed to the 0–100 composite. A metric that is unavailable for an entity is never estimated — the remaining weights are rescaled and the composite flagged “partial.”
| Dimension | Source | Direction | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal-transfer dependence (% of revenue) | Census State Finances FY2021 (intergovernmental ÷ total revenue) | Lower better ▼ | 30 |
| Own-source revenue per capita | Census State Finances FY2021 ÷ ACS population | Higher better ▲ | 20 |
| Structural balance (recurring rev vs spend) pending | expenditure not exposed in this Census API slice; Pew Fiscal 50 pending | — | 20 |
| Rainy-day fund (% of spending) pending | NASBO/Pew download pending | — | 15 |
| Pension funded ratio pending | Public Plans Database download pending | — | 15 |
| State debt per capita pending | debt not in this Census API slice | — | 0 |
| Credit rating pending | no free Moody's/S&P/Fitch feed; enter manually (cited) | — | 0 |
Provenance
Primary source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State Government Finances · https://api.census.gov/data/timeseries/govsstatefin.