Federal Hand-Out States and Contributors

Politics & Elections
1

Continuing the discussion from Statehood for Puerto Rico?:

I didn’t want to cause a hijack of the Statehood for Puerto Rico so decided to start this one.

I was stating the North East is the primary supporter of the US Federal Budget. California being less important, especially per capita. California has recovered though from their low point in the late teens so they contribute more than I realized.

No matter what, the majority of the big takers are South Eastern states and Red States in general. Virginia falls into a weird spot of not being much of a direct taker but benefitting from Federal Contracts more than any other state by far. Alaska is another big hand-out state, despite all the oil money. Really shameful.

There are many ways to evaluate this so I’m trying to link to several.

They evaluate on most Federally dependent. Alaska (surprise) is the most dependent followed by Mississippi, Kentucky & West Virginia.

Delaware is the least followed by New Jersey, Kansas (surprise) & Utah

Chart of 50 states
Rank State Total Score State Residents’ Dependency State Government’s Dependency
1 Alaska 93.22 1 3
2 Mississippi 84.94 4 4
3 Kentucky 79.54 6 7
4 West Virginia 78.08 2 11
5 Montana 75.90 13 2
6 New Mexico 75.15 3 15
7 Arizona 69.92 12 6
8 Louisiana 69.50 21 1
9 Indiana 68.23 9 12
10 Alabama 66.92 10 10
11 South Carolina 62.94 7 25
12 Wyoming 60.36 25 5
13 Maine 57.50 11 19
14 Tennessee 52.74 26 8
15 Missouri 47.43 32 9
16 Pennsylvania 47.21 20 18
17 Oklahoma 46.45 15 32
18 Vermont 45.76 16 30
19 South Dakota 45.65 24 17
20 Idaho 44.48 22 22
21 Maryland 41.72 19 33
22 Michigan 41.45 28 21
23 North Dakota 41.32 5 49
24 Arkansas 40.20 41 14
25 Oregon 39.30 27 27
26 Hawaii 38.00 8 50
27 New York 37.72 45 13
28 Georgia 37.61 35 20
29 North Carolina 36.99 34 23
30 Rhode Island 36.52 33 24
31 Connecticut 35.91 18 39
32 Wisconsin 35.74 17 40
33 Nevada 35.37 29 31
34 Florida 35.00 30 29
35 Ohio 34.20 46 16
36 New Hampshire 33.91 39 26
37 Texas 33.69 38 28
38 Minnesota 28.99 23 43
39 Virginia 28.48 14 48
40 Nebraska 28.19 42 34
41 California 26.87 44 35
42 Colorado 26.34 40 36
43 Massachusetts 21.19 48 37
44 Iowa 20.96 31 45
45 Illinois 20.60 47 38
46 Washington 19.91 43 41
47 Utah 15.46 36 46
48 Kansas 13.50 37 47
49 New Jersey 13.16 49 44
50 Delaware 12.26 50 42

Blue States are indeed carrying Red States. No surprise there I believe.

Next article just shows Donor states vs. Takers as of 2022. This is raw $.

Tthe big donors are NY, followed by NJ, Mass, California & Connecticut.

The big takers are:

As of 2020 https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2020-05-15/some-states-like-new-york-send-billions-more-to-federal-government-than-they-get-back

The biggest givers in our latest report, based on 2018 data, were New York, which paid in US$22 billion more than it received; New Jersey, which paid $12 billion more; Massachusetts, which paid $9 billion more; and Connecticut, which paid $8 billion more than it received.

As of 2019 (Pre-Pandemic)

It is still mostly Red states depending on the Blue States.

2

I unfortunately can’t find the exact data Im looking for (total federal govt revenue broken up by state and tax bracket it came from) but the states where the top 1%/2%/5% happen to reside in is going to skew those numbers a ton. I happen to live in a net payer (Massachusetts) but I doubt the conparatively measley amount people like me pay is the reason.

The people in the top tax brackets are relatively concentrated and as a result I’d expect any state where they don’t live to be a net recipient.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-10-31/where-the-1-live

3

Keep in mind, not all Federal money is income tax, there is a fair amount from Corporate taxes also. Wall Street is a major reason for New York’s oversized contribution as one example. I don’t know the breakdown, but it isn’t just big individual earners supporting the Government.

For California it is Tech, Corporate Agriculture & major ports sending money to the Federal Coffers.

New Jersey is high income earners, Pharma, a very robust middle class and fair amount as a major ports.

4

The super-rich might be concentrated, but they’re mostly in the 0% tax bracket. The folks in the 30% bracket are probably much closer to uniform (though still probably not completely so).

5

It is a surprise to red states.

6

Correct me if I’m wrong but if corporate income gets counted the way I think it does that would also skew things. If a corporation is headquartered in California but employs a lot of people and/or has a lot of customers in other states the entirety of the corporate tax would be considered to have come from California right?

7

I am reminded of an old text that was circulated in the early days of the internet. While dated, it still has some relevance (I do not know the original source for proper credit):

Glurge Reprint

Dear Red States:

We’ve decided we’re leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we’re taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren’t aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all of the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly:

You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches.

We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.

We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.

We get Harvard. You get Ole’ Miss.

We get 85 percent of America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama.

We get two-thirds of the tax revenue. You get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition’s, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we’re going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they’re apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don’t care if you don’t show pictures of their children’s caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we’re not willing to spend our resources in Bush’s Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country’s fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation’s fresh fruit, 95 percent of America’s quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Stanford, Cal Tech, MIT, and University of California.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we’re discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals than we lefties.

By the way, we’re taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.

Peace out,

8

I did not know there was a “glurge” thing on this board.

Cool.

TIL

9

To the OP…

(that last one is kinda old but I don’t see that much has changed)