For years, it was conventional wisdom that the most financially-challenged state in the US - whether it comes to overall debt burden, outlays, tax collections, underfunded pension and retirement obligations, or simply credit rating - was Illinois, followed closely by New Jersey in second place.

However, according to New Jersey's Senate president, conventional wisdom is wrong. In an interview with Bloomberg, Senator Stephen Sweeney, a Democrat, said that that credit-rating companies may be underestimating the severity of the state's financial strains by giving it the second-lowest grade after Illinois.

"We are in worse shape than Illinois," Sweeney said. "We are not investing in education, we are not investing in the areas that we want because all the money is going to pensions and health care."