Is Your State Winning or Losing the Tax Game?

There are winners and losers in the race for more federal tax dollars. Some states pay out large amounts of tax dollars but don’t get much back. Others reap the rewards of federal largess. The New York State Comptroller’s office has studied the phenomenon and laid out the facts. New York is a big loser when it comes to tax dollar allotment, ranked at 47th in net tax flows. Worse off though is nearby New Jersey, which ranks dead last in the ratio of dollars out to dollars in.

If you live in New Mexico, your state is receiving the highest net tax dollar flow, with a positive per capita balance of payments of nearly $10,000. Other big winners were West Virginia, Mississippi, Virginia, and Alabama.

The Comptroller’s office writes:

Most states received substantially more in federal expenditures than they generated in federal revenues in FFY 2017. Nationwide, on a per capita basis, the average gain was $1,873. In other words, the average individual “received” that much more in federal expenditures than she or he “paid” in federal taxes.

And continues:

In 2017, all revenues paid to the federal government totaled more than $3.3 trillion. This total primarily represents revenue from the following taxes, as classified by the federal Office of Management and Budget: personal or individual income tax; social insurance taxes and contributions; corporate income tax; excise taxes; and estate and gift taxes. For the 50 states and Washington, D.C., collections from these taxes generated a total of $3.1 trillion or $9,628 per capita in FFY 2017.

…

By far the largest category of federal expenditures is direct payments to or on behalf of individuals, which totaled $2.3 trillion or approximately 63 percent of federal spending allocated to the states in FFY 2017. Social Security and Medicare represented almost 70 percent of these direct payments in FFY 2017. The second largest federal spending category was grants to state and local governments. Medicaid made up 56 percent of the $669 billion in such expenditures. Procurement was the third largest category, at $474 billion, while the fourth largest category, federal employee wages and salaries, totaled $257 billion.

Read the entire report below: