In its “Financial State of the States 2020” analysis, Truth in Accounting gave Hawaii an “F” financial grade and ranked us 47th out of the 50 states.

Find out why — and hear ideas on how we can right the ship — at “The real state of government finances in Hawaii” on Thursday, Aug. 19, from 12:30 to 2 p.m. at the J. Walter Cameron Center in Wailuku.

The luncheon’s hosts are Sheila Weinberg, founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting, and Keli’i Akina, president and CEO of Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.

Founded in 2002, Truth in Accounting’s mission is to “educate and empower citizens with understandable, reliable and transparent government financial information.”

It accomplishes this by analyzing accounting data from each of the 50 states and 75 most populous cities in the country to produce annual assessments of government finances.

Its findings enable it to “cut through politicization and accounting tricks to show the true fiscal condition of each state and city, including the health of pension plans.”

Our state flunked due to its debt burden — Hawaii had $6.8 billion available to pay $22.9 billion worth of bills. The outcome was a $16.1 billion shortfall, which breaks down to a burden of $31,700 per taxpayer.

“This report shows that Hawaii went into the coronavirus pandemic in dire fiscal health, and it will probably come out of the crisis even worse,” the report concludes.

So, where do we go from here?

Grassroot Institute of Hawaii believes there is hope, “as long as we know the truth about where we stand and what constructive policy options we have at our disposal.”

Visit grassrootinstitute.org and click on EVENTS to register.