(The Center Square) – Maryland’s gap between available assets and financial obligations grew to $25.7 billion in fiscal 2025, according to a new national report.

Truth in Accounting ranked Maryland 42nd among the states and gave it a D in its 17th annual Financial State of the States report. The nonprofit calculated the shortfall at $11,200 per taxpayer.

That figure represents each taxpayer’s estimated share of the gap under the group’s methodology. It is not an additional tax bill taxpayers have been asked to pay.

The report draws from Maryland’s audited financial statements and retirement system reports. It counts obligations such as pensions and retiree health care that extend beyond the annual budget.

Maryland had about $35.7 billion in assets available to cover $61.4 billion in obligations, according to the analysis. The group excludes capital assets, such as roads and buildings, and assets restricted to specific uses from the amount available to pay bills.

Unfunded retirement benefits accounted for more than half of the total obligations. The report listed $24.6 billion in unfunded pension benefits and $10.1 billion in unfunded retiree health care benefits.

Sheila Weinberg, founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting, told The Center Square that Maryland’s expenses exceeded its revenues. Even after strong investment returns, she said, its pension system had 74 cents set aside for every dollar in promised benefits.

Weinberg said unfunded obligations leave future taxpayers responsible for costs incurred in earlier years.

Maryland’s estimated retiree health care obligation declined by more than $2 billion, according to the report. That largely reflected revised assumptions that future health care costs would rise more slowly than previously expected.

The change lowered the estimated cost of future benefits without an actual reduction in health care costs. But expenses exceeding revenues largely offset that improvement, the report said.

Maryland was one of four states where annual expenses exceeded revenues under the group’s analysis. The others were Nebraska, New Hampshire and Washington.

The Center Square requested comment from the Maryland comptroller’s office on the findings. A response was pending.

The comptroller’s office addressed broader questions about Maryland’s finances in a Sept. 14 letter to Weinberg, before the new report’s release.

Chief Deputy Comptroller Erica Roach explained in the letter that a structural deficit occurs when recurring revenues do not cover recurring spending. She cited multiyear spending commitments and national policies among the factors affecting Maryland’s budget and finances.