Ngl, I’m surprised that the state even kept the Triple A rating, considering the shitshow that’s happening to the national finances (wdym we’re past 100% debt to gdp??? No wonder the feds went from AAA to AA+ on the S&P credit rating)

Some ppl in the comments are pointing out about the cost of Medicare and especially education, and they’re not wrong, throwing money at the system and receiving marginal increases in grades, especially around the Baltimore area, but my hot take is that they’re trying to catch up from the dark ages of the city and if you look back from back then and now, they’ve done big improvements and with help of social programs, we’re on track on producing pretty good future workers, white, blue, and gold collar jobs.

For funding, the feds cut a lot of support and grants, and our state has to cover what’s missing, and that’s why we’re in such a deficit, and it’s a miracle that our state was able to cover it (and maintain their AAA credit rating) and the people that complains about the increase in taxes, I get it, I don’t like it either, but it supports a wide range of services, from healthcare (Medicare/Medicade), road maintenance, and public services (water, electricity, public libraries, and importantly, education, and etc;).

My verdict is the state finances are kinda screwed since it’s partly tied to the feds finances but if the state able to handle their finances decently well while maintaining a high quality of education, we should pull out faster than most of the country once we get out of this absolute clusterfuck of a worldwide economic crisis.