FW Rank: 19

1992 Rank: 27

Population: 12 million

Moody's bond rating: A1

Standard & Poor's bond rating: AA-

Governor: Robert P. Casey, Democrat

Legislature: Democratic majority in House and Senate

-- Ranking pluses: Excellent long-range planning; deficit, based on GAAP, reduced from $1.1 billion in fiscal 1991 to $138 million at end of 1992; long history of measuring agencies' performance; very good financial reporting with GFOA Certificate of Achievement; well funded pensions.

-- Ranking minuses: Currently depleted rainy day fund, though new statute will help ensure it's refilled; slower-than-average payment to Medicaid providers; room for more program evaluation.

-- Comments: Big political upheaval in state senate as a Republican senator switched parties, changing the balance of power - and all the leadership positions to the Democratic side. Meanwhile, the State Supreme Court is somewhat chaotic. A justice, reprimanded for "improperly involving himself in a lower level court," has accused one colleague on the bench of trying to run him down with a car. Court reform is likely in Pennsylvania, one of only eight states that still choose all its judges in partisan elections. Budget problems have greatly eased with the infusion of dollars from the 1991 tax increase, as well as returning revenue strength. Prison expansion, partially necessitated by mandatory sentencing, calls for a 24% increase for corrections in the governor's proposal fiscal 1994 budget.

Source: "The State of the States," Financial World Magazine, May 11, 1993 (Vol. 161, No. 10); New York, NY.