For several years now, a group called the Institute for Truth in Accounting has been doing important work, trying to think critically about the financial condition of the nation's 50 states. They don't take as gospel the sugar-coated messages delivered by the politicians and bureaucrats; they dig into the numbers to try to assess how far in hock the states really are. Their latest report, released this week, is based on the mid-2010 financial reports released by state governments. It's a large pdf file that we've posted here.

In the report, Oregon comes in as the state with the ninth least debt per person, or $900 per household. This number is calculated by taking the state's liabilities and subtracting out assets on hand that are realistically available to pay them, then dividing by the number of federal tax filers in the state who had a tax liability.

In contrast, Washington State comes in at no. 27, with debt of $9,800 per household. Idaho is no. 13 at $2,600 per household; California comes in at no. 44 with $21,400 per household.

One can certainly argue with the methodology used to produce the rankings, but if nothing else, the report carries out the salutary functions of reminding us that financial accounting has a lot of art to it, and urging us to think about government finances in ways other than those pushed on us by the state capitol. We'd be interested in seeing how the City of Portland would stack up under their calculations. By our reckoning, the city's long-term debt is now more than $11,000 per person, but that does not include an offset for assets realistically available to pay them.