The Congressional Budget Office recently came out with a report on federal spending so dire that even the Washington Post had to start warning about the “Debt Tsunami.” Sadly, the indebtedness is hardly a purely federal phenomenon. California’s budget crisis has generated a the most press, by far. The Golden State, however, is far from the only state suffering a fiscal fiasco. In fact, five states face a shutdown of government services unless they can come up with budget before the end of the fiscal year at midnight.

Thanks to our intrepid intern, Chase Gray, and the research of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, we dug up some numbers on how just how bad the situation is around the country. Our research proved alternately surprising and obvious, but uniformly depressing. Consider this fact for starters: even though California’s $24.3 billion budget deficit is larger than the annual GDP of 100 countries, on a per capita basis, it still isn’t the worst in the United States.

Improbable as that may sound, it’s true. Connecticut’s budget deficit is actually 27% higher than California’s. When you run the numbers through Many Eyes, it looks like this:

Not surprisingly, New York, California, and if we include it, Washington D.C., all make the list. Connecticut? That’s a little more surprising. But considering that the state depends heavily, like California, on the income tax, and high earners, it’s bound to be disproportionately affected by the souring economy. Regardless, the top states have plenty of company in the deficit ranks: 46 out of 50 states expect a budget deficit in 2010, so the states are 92% effective at spending money they don’t have.

Looking at the numbers on a map makes the regional differences more apparent:

Not surprisingly, the coasts fare poorly, but the middle of the country is less immediately intelligible. If you click through to the original visualization, you can mouse over each state to see it’s per capita deficit. But a speedy way to point out most of the top offenders is to just stack it up next to this map:

In both maps, the states that voted for Obama are highlighted in orange. While there are several states that went for McCain facing huge deficits (such as his home state, Arizona), Obama states have a vastly higher per capita budget deficit. Republican-voting states face an average of $162 in deficit per person, come 2010. Obama’s turf faces a collective shortfall three times as large: $476 per person.

Tomorrow, we’ll see how the states fared when ranked in terms of economic liberty, as well as examine state deficits from a different perspective.

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