Oddly, New Jersey’s state budget is rather good. You can read it and understand it, and priorities are clearly stated, along with at least an attempt at metrics. I now live and work in New York State, and I defy anyone to read and understand anywhere near as easily its voluminous and technically quite detailed budget documents.

It’s no surprise New Jersey’s state budget — and an eclectic collection of public-authority and school-district budgets — routinely win awards for excellence in presentation from the Government Finance Officers Association. Check out the pdf at that link, and you’ll see that no New Jersey city is so honored, and it’s more or less the opposite in New York State, where quite a few cities win the awards but the state government is nowhere to be found.

These awards are not mere parlor games. There’s a clear qualitative difference between the award-winning budgets and those that don’t cut it. Trenton should be challenged to win one of these awards, as a starter. Even if the news is grim, presentation can be clear. You just have to care.