Yess... if data structures are more structured then program gets more safe and precise:

#!/usr/bin/perl 

use utf8;
use Modern::Perl;
use Data::Dumper;

my $db = {
  '99155' => {
              'PR' => {
                         state_name => 'Puerto Rico',
                         county_names_all => [qw{Adjuntas Utuado}],
                       },
              'AK' => {
                         state_name => 'Alaska',
                         county_names_all => ['Ketchikan', 'Gateway', 
+'Prince of + Wales-Hyder'],
                       },
              'WA' => {
                         state_name => 'Washington',
                         county_names_all => ['Pend Oreille', 'Spokane
+', 'Lincol +nAdams'],
                         comments => 'America/Los_Angeles'
                       }
            },
  '26134' => {
               'WV' => {
                          state_name => 'West Virginia',
                          county_names_all => ['Wirt', 'Wood', 'Jackso
+n', 'Ritchie', 'Calhoun'],
                          comments => 'America/New_York'
                        }
                 }
}; 

my %states_with_comments = 
        map { ($$_{state_name}, 'hurray!') } 
        grep { $$_{comments} } 
        map { values %$_ } 
        values %$db; 

print "states are: ", (join "; ", sort, keys %states_with_comments), "
+\n";
[download]

Dumper of db:

 
$VAR1 = {
          '26134' => {
                       'WV' => {
                                 'county_names_all' => [
                                                         'Wirt',
                                                         'Wood',
                                                         'Jackson',
                                                         'Ritchie',
                                                         'Calhoun'
                                                       ],
                                 'comments' => 'America/New_York',
                                 'state_name' => 'West Virginia'
                               }
                     },
          '99155' => {
                       'WA' => {
                                 'comments' => 'America/Los_Angeles',
                                 'state_name' => 'Washington',
                                 'county_names_all' => [
                                                         'Pend Oreille
+',
                                                         'Spokane',
                                                         'Lincol +nAda
+ms'
                                                       ]
                               },
                       'AK' => {
                                 'county_names_all' => [
                                                         'Ketchikan',
                                                         'Gateway',
                                                         'Prince of + 
+Wales-Hyder'
                                                       ],
                                 'state_name' => 'Alaska'
                               },
                       'PR' => {
                                 'state_name' => 'Puerto Rico',
                                 'county_names_all' => [
                                                         'Adjuntas',
                                                         'Utuado'
                                                       ]
                               }
                     }
        };
[download]