Whitney, who has predicted a wave of municipal defaults this yearworth upwards of $100 billion, said the move in the Garden State is not highly significant by itself.

But she said it is "endemic of the larger issues" when taken in conjunction with how much trouble the state and others like it across the nation will have in meeting their basic debt and pension obligations.

"I wouldn't read too much into this one financing. It could be business as usual. That's not the issue," Whitney said in a live interview. "New Jersey's fiscal woes are far bigger than them accessing a line of credit or a new loan."

Rather, she said these types of moves will be mere warning shots as states approve their spending plans for the fiscal year ahead—running from July 1 to June 30—and balance those budgets by cutting local aid.

"That's what's really going to hurt. So the pain of the states is just upon us," said Whitney, famous for her warning about Citigroup's exposure to subprime loans back in 2007, a call that would foretell the ensuing financial crisis. "What you'll see now is as the states are submitting final budgets, you'll see the real pain at the municipal level start happening July 1. That will intensify and that's where you'll see the fallout."