New York City inspires an image of money and financial success. NYC has also been a source of some of the most spectacular financial failures in our nation's history. One of those failures was NYC government itself back in the 1970’s. Depictions of Wall Street bankers and high level executives litter movies and television. Today, despite messaging designed to cultivate an image of financial probity following the 1970’s near-bankruptcy, NYC is now in the worst financial condition of any city in the United States.

Here are the 5 things to know about the financial state of New York City;

1. NYC needs $179.3 billion to pay its bills

New York City has $56.1 billion available in assets to pay $235.3 billion worth of bills, leaving the city $179.3 billion in the hole.

2. TIA’s Taxpayer Burden™ for NYC is $62,500

Truth In Accounting estimates each NYC taxpayer would have to contribute $62,500 to pay off all the unfunded debt the city has accumulated.

3. Unfunded pension promises account for $69.7 billion of this debt. Unfunded retiree health care benefits add $79.4 billion on top of that.

Despite years of city claims to have produced “GAAP based balanced budgets,” NYC has accumulated more debt per taxpayer than any of the other 75 largest cities in the United States.

4. The Taxpayer Burden in NYC has been growing over the past three years

NYC’s financial position has deteriorated further in the last three years despite significant gains in financial markets.

5. NYC’s latest financial report was released 123 days after the end of the 2016 fiscal year

While it may be bad news, at least NYC’s citizens get the news sooner rather than later. NYC has a large and very complicated financial report, but the city is among the fastest of the 75 largest cities to get the information to the public.        

Unfortunately, New York City is not an exception, since 64 of the nation’s 75 most populous cities are unable to pay all of their bills. This burden will ultimately fall on the taxpayers. The city may have avoided bankruptcy in the 1970’s, but it may not be so lucky in the next few years.

To find out more about NYC and the other 75 most populous cities read the full Financial State of the Cities Report.