Public Information Office CB01-148
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e-mail: pio@census.gov
John R. Kennedy
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State and Local Governments' Revenues and
Spending Up, Census Bureau Reports
Spending by the nation's state and local governments increased by 6.3
percent in 1999, to $1.6 trillion. Revenues rose 4.3 percent to $1.8
trillion, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau reported today.
California was the nation's largest spender, spending $218 billion, and
the nation's largest recipient of revenues, $242 billion, according to the
new tabulations.
Other findings:
- State and local governments spent more than one-half of their money
in four areas education ($483 billion), public welfare ($215
billion), highways ($93 billion) and hospitals ($72 billion).
- Taxes continued as the primary source of government revenue, with
state governments relying primarily on general sales taxes ($164
billion) and individual income taxes ($173 billion).
- Connecticut relied most heavily on general sales and income taxes,
with 42 percent of its total revenues coming from these sources.
- Local governments, on the other hand, relied primarily on property
taxes ($228 billion). New Hampshire, where property taxes accounted
for 68 percent of total local revenues, was the state that relied
most heavily on this revenue source.
- The second most important source of state and local government
revenues was money supplied by other governments. A ratio of more
than $1 out of every $5 in state government revenues ($239 billion)
came from the federal government and about $1 out of every $3 of
local government revenues ($328 billion) were derived
from state governments or federal sources.
- State and local governments showed an outstanding debt of $1.4
trillion, with interest payments on debt of $77 billion and cash and
security holdings of $3.2 trillion (mostly holdings of public
employee retirement systems). California state and local governments
reported the most cash and security holdings ($478 billion), followed
by New York ($293 billion).
The tabulations from the 1999 Annual Survey of Government Finances,
released on the Internet, show detailed revenue by type and source (e.g.,
taxes, charges and federal aid); expenditure by function (e.g., police,
fire and education) and other categories such as current operations and
capital outlay (e.g., construction); indebtedness; and assets (cash and
security holdings).
In addition to general government activity, the data cover other
government sectors such as public-employee retirement systems,
government-owned utilities and indebtedness which invalidates direct
comparisons of revenues and expenditures. Tables and downloadable files
include summary data for the nation by level of government (state and
local) and summary estimates for state areas.
The data are subject to sampling variability, as well as nonsampling
errors. Sources of nonsampling error include errors of response,
nonreporting and coverage. Measures of sampling variability are presented
as relative standard errors in the tables.
available free from Adobe.
