A ranking of the financial problems of various states finds Hawai'i tied for having the 19th-worst fiscal health nationally.

The study by the Pew Center on States is an attempt to identify states that are having budget troubles given the well-publicized fiscal woes of California. There, state government had to temporarily issue IOUs to state employers and contractors and has started shutting state offices on several Fridays a month.

"California's problems are in a league of their own," said the study, "Beyond California: States in Fiscal Peril."

"But the same pressures that drove it toward fiscal disaster are wreaking havoc in a number of states, with potentially damaging consequences for the entire country."

The report said other states faring poorly may face similar problems that have beset California because of fiscal shortfalls. It identified the next nine highest states as potentially having similar dilemmas, though noted "close behind the 10 states on our list were states like Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, New York and Hawai'i."

The report's authors looked at six factors that contribute to financial distress, including tax shortfalls, budget gaps, changes in unemployment, the foreclosure rate and how well each state manages its fiscal affairs.

Based on those scores, the researchers came up with an index, ranking California worst at an index score of 30.

Hawai'i's index score was 19, tying it with Massachusetts. Both state's score were 2 points worse than the national average of 17.

The report is a snapshot of fiscal measures as of July 2009 and shows Hawai'i had experienced a 10.2 percent drop in revenue, while the 19.1 percent budget gap was heftier than the national average of 17.7 percent.

It also weighed the state's 3.5 percentage-point rise in unemployment, its foreclosure rate and a "C+" grade assigned it by Pew's Government Performance Project for money management practices.

The authors looked at the 10 worst-performing states — California, Arizona, Rhode Island, Michigan, Oregon, Nevada, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois and Wisconsin — and determined four common factors.

These included having an unbalanced economy in relying on a particular industry that's been taken down by the recession. In Michigan it's been the automobile industry, while in Nevada, it's been a bet on gambling.

The ability to respond to fiscal crisis by cutting spending or raising taxes was also cited along with the lack of political resolve to make long-term fixes to fiscal problems.

The report said an example of this was the passage by the California Legislature of a budget that forced its governor to make cuts while also asking voters to enact a $6 billion tax increase, the report said.