State Tax FY12 Update

On October 6, 2012 usgovernmentspending.com updated FY2012 state revenue with quarterly tax data from the US Census Bureau.  Local tax data was updated by assuming that local taxes for 2012  changed by the same percent as state taxes of the same type.

"Guesstimated" spending and revenue for state and local government for FY 2011 through FY 2017 was updated using the method described in "Change to 'Guesstimated' State and Local Spending", by projecting the rate of change for each spending or revenue item between FY 2009 and FY 2010 forwards to FY 2017.

The following table shows "guesstimated" US state and local total spending and total revenue before and after the change.

Spending $ billion	FY 2011	FY 2012	FY 2013
Before	3,063	3,067	3,167
After	3,190	3,243	3,291

Revenue $ billion	FY 2011	FY 2012	FY 2013
Before	2,549	2,619	2,748
After	2,547	2,553	2,613

State and Local Update for 2010

On September 26, 2012 usgovernmentspending.com updated the state and local spending and revenue for FY 2010 using the newly released Census Bureau State and Local Government Finances for FY 2010.  This includes state and local spending for the United States as a whole and individual states and the District of Columbia.

State and local spending and revenue for FY2010 are now actual historical spending as reported by the Census Bureau.  Previously state spending and revenue for FY2010 was actual and local spending and revenue was estimated.

Also updated were state and local finances for 2008 and 2009 using newly released Census Bureau revised data.

Spending Category Definitions

Here's what's included in the top-line categories of government spending. You can also drill down here to look at examples.

• Pensions:  Social Security and government pensions.
  
  
• Health Care: Medicare and Medicaid, public health, medical research.
  
  
• Education: Education, K-12 thru university.
  
  
• Defense: Pentagon, veterans, State Department, foreign aid.
  
  
• Welfare: Cash welfare, food stamps, unemployment benefits, workers comp, housing (but not Medicaid).
  
  
• Protection: Police, fire, courts, prisons.
  
  
• Transportation: Highways and mass transit.
  
  
• General Government: executive, legislative, finance, general services.
  
  
• Other Spending: Research, economic development, agriculture, energy, environment.