Federal Budget FY 13 Released

On February 13, 2012, we updated usgovernmentspending.com with the numbers from the historical tables in the FY13 federal budget. Actual revenue for FY 2011 and estimated revenue through FY 2017 come from Tables 2.1, 2.4, and 2.5. Actual spending for FY 2011 and estimated spending at the subfunction level through FY 2017 comes from Table 3.2. Federal debt estimates come from Table 7.1 and GDP estimates come from Table 10.1.

You can see you each line item changes from budget to budget here. You can compare budget estimates with actuals here.

Account level spending estimates through FY 2017 come from the outlays table in the Public Budget Database and will be updated in the next few days.

State Finances Update for FY 2010

On December 14, 2011 the US Census Bureau released data on state finances for FY 2010 here, including spending and revenue for each individual state and for all states combined.

On December 27, 2011 we updated state and local spending and revenue data as follows:

1. We replaced "guesstimated" state spending and revenue data for FY2010 using the data from the Census Bureau.
2. We replaced "guesstimated" local spending and revenue data for FY 2010 with estimates for each spending and revenue category using the trends in state finances between FY 2009 and FY 2010.
3. We replaced "guesstimated" state revenue data for FY 2011 with data from the Census Bureau's quarterly state tax summary here.
4. We replaced "guesstimated" local revenue data for FY 2011 with estimates for each category using trends for each category of state revenue between FY 2010 and FY 2011.
5. We replaced "guesstimated" state and local spending and revenue for FY 2012 thru FY2017 with new guesstimates based on the latest Census Bureau data for FY 2010 state finances and FY 2011 quarterly tax data.

The Census Bureau expects to release local spending and revenue data for FY 2010 in July 2012.

Highlights: State spending on Welfare was up from a "guesstimated" $164 billion to $237 billion.  Business and Other Revenue was up from a "guesstimated" $174 billion to $456 billion.  This reflects the $289 billion profit reported on state pension plans for FY 2010, a partial recovery from the FY 2009 loss of $524 billion.

Revision to State and Local Data for 2001, 2003

We have revised state and local spending and revenue data for 2001 and 2003.

For 2001 and 2003 the Census Bureau did not publish a local government survey sample, but only the raw Individual Unit Files.  UsGovernmentSpending.com has used the data from the Individual Unit Files, but they are incomplete for some states, and showed huge declines in spending in some categories such as Education.

We have revised the presentation of state and local spending and revenue data for 2001 and 2003 as follows.

1. State spending and revenue for each item is shown as published in the State Government Finances for 2001 and 2003.
2. Local spending for each item is shown for 2001 by taking the average for 2000 and 2002.
3. Local spending for each item is shown for 2003 by taking the average for 2002 and 2004.
4. Local revenue for each item is shown for 2001 by taking the 2000 local value and applying the rate of change between 2000 and 2001 for the state revenue item to the corresponding local revenue item.
5. Local revenue for each item is shown for 2003 by taking the 2002 local value and applying the rate of change between 2002 and 2003 for the state revenue item to the corresponding local revenue item.
6. State-and-local spending and revenue items for 2001 and 2003 are computed as the sum of the state value and the local value.

State-and-local and local spending and revenue items are tagged as "interpolated" for 2001 and 2003.

Thanks to Ed Nevins for his advice and counsel.