State Government Tax Revenue Rises for Fourth Year in a Row

State government tax revenue increased 2.2 percent, from $847.1 billion in fiscal year 2013 to $865.8 billion in 2014, the fourth consecutive increase, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections.       General sales and gross receipts taxes drove most of the revenue growth, increasing from $258.9 billion to $271.3 billion, or 4.8 percent. Severance taxes increased 6.0 percent, from $16.8 billion to $17.8 billion, and motor fuel taxes increased 3.4 percent, from $40.1 billion to $41.5 billion.       “The Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections provides a comprehensive look at the fiscal health of state governments,”

State Government Revenues Exceed Expenditures in 2013

New Government Finance Statistics from Annual Survey of State Government Finances and Annual Survey of Public Pensions       Total state government revenue rose by 16.3 percent, from $1.9 trillion in 2012 to $2.2 trillion in 2013, according to the latest findings on state government finances from the U.S. Census Bureau.         Nearly three-quarters of that increase (73.9 percent) is attributable to the growth in insurance trust revenue, which grew by 89.7 percent, from $255.8 billion in 2012 to $485.2 billion in 2013, and is comprised mostly of pension systems administered by state governments. These insurance trust figures reflect the market value of investments, meaning that they are affected by fluctuations in capital markets and not solely by governments’ fiscal policies.Total expenditures for state governments were $2.0 trillion, an increase of 1.2 percent from 2012.       “Unlike in 2012, total revenues exceeded total expenses,” said Kevin Deardorff, chief of the Census Bureau’s Economy-Wide Statistics Division.

State and Local Government Spending Grows Faster Than Revenue

Between 2007 and 2012, total expenditures for state and local governments increased by 18.2 percent, from $2.7 trillion to $3.2 trillion, while total revenue declined 1.1 percent over the same five-year period, from $3.1 trillion to $3.0 trillion, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data from the 2012 Census of Governments released today.       Two major contributors to the decline in total revenues were employee retirement revenue, which includes earnings on investments and contributions, (dropping 67.7 percent, from $533.3 billion to $172.0 billion) and interest earnings (falling 44.6 percent, from $91.9 billion to $50.9 billion).       “State and local government revenues continue to be impacted by capital market fluctuations, especially employee retirement revenues,” said Kevin Deardorff, chief of the Census Bureau’s Economy-Wide Statistics Division.       The findings are from the 2012 Census of Governments: Finance — Surveys of State and Local Government Finances, which shows revenues, expenditures, debt, and cash and security holdings by level and type of government. Level of government includes state, local, and state and local combined. Type of government includes state, county, city, township, special district and school district.

State and Local Government Tax Revenue: 4th Quarter 2012

This summary shows quarterly tax revenue statistics on property, sales, license, income and other taxes. Statistics are shown for individual state governments as well as national estimates of total state and local taxes, including 12-month calculations. This quarterly survey has been conducted continuously since 1962. Internet address:

How the 50 States Rate in Providing Online Access to Government Spending Data

The ability to see how government uses the public purse is fundamental to democracy. Transparency in government spending promotes fiscal responsibility, checks corruption, and bolsters public confidence.

In the past few years, state governments across the country have made their checkbooks transparent by creating online transparency portals. These government-operated websites allow visitors to view the government’s checkbook – who receives state money, how much, and for what purposes. Most of these websites are also searchable, making it easier for residents to follow the money and monitor government spending of many sorts. Today almost every state operates a transparency website with the state’s checkbook accessible to the public.

Over the past two years, the number of states that give citizens access to their state’s checkbook has increased from 32 to 46.

This report is U.S. PIRG Education Fund’s third annual ranking of states’ progress toward “Transparency 2.0” – a new standard of comprehensive, one-stop, one-click budget accountability and accessibility.

Big Cuts In State and Local Government Jobs

Combined state and local government employment across the U.S. has declined significantly since the Great Recession began in December 2007, according to a new report from the Rockefeller Institute of Government.

During the past year, state and local governments cut a total of about 489,000 jobs, a decline of 2.5 percent. Percentage cuts in state and local government employment are actually greater, if we compare current employment levels to peak levels. As of December 2012, for the nation as a whole, state and local government employment is down 3.4 percent or 681,000 jobs from the peak level recorded in August of 2008.

The report shows that the impact of the Great Recession on state and local public employment has been much deeper than any other recession in the last 50 years.

Federal, State & Local Governments - A Closer Look

A part of the IRS, FSLG is responsible for ensuring federal tax compliance by federal, quasi-governmental and state agencies; city, county, and other units of local government; and governmental entities in American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The office coordinates activities with other IRS offices such as Customer Account Services, Counsel, Government Liaison & Disclosure, Employee Plans and Excise Tax. Additionally, Federal, State and Local Governments works with the Taxpayer Advocate Service to resolve tax problems.

FSLG delivers various services through partnership with government associations, practitioner associations, IRS Counsel, and other IRS offices. Individualized service is available to you on a voluntary basis. Specially trained IRS staff can address tax topics - unique to government entities - that may relate to, for example, governments as employers, and issues of payments to outside contractors.

To read the January 2013 edition of the FSLG Newsletter, please visit the Current Edition in the Government Entities section of the IRS.gov website.

Updated NYS Legislative Spending Posted

New York's State Legislature spent $102 million during the six-month period ending last March, according to the latest legislative data posted at SeeThroughNY. The expenditure information, which goes back to 2006, can be sorted by reporting period, expenditure type, and member name. Users can also isolate spending for individual units of the Legislature's central staff.

Ranked by office expenditures, highest-spending members in the Senate and Assembly were Kenneth Lavalle (R-Long Island) at $510,598.26 and Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) at $488,359.44, respectively.

The period covered by the Legislature's release of six-month expenditure data ends before the Assembly reportedly made a secret payment of $103,080, under the cover of "legal services," to settle sexual harassment claims brought by two former staffers against Assemblyman Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn). However, it does include a total of $424,237 in payments, by both the Assembly and Senate, to four law firms for "legal services" not further specified in the data.

To view the database, click here.

State Integrity

Open records laws with hundreds of exemptions. Budget decisions made behind closed doors. Ethics panels that haven’t met in years.

Those are among the examples of corruption risk found in the State Integrity Investigation, an unprecedented examination of America’s state capitols. The bottom line? Not a single state earned an A grade in the year-long investigation.

New York received a D.

State and Local Governments Employ 16.4 Million Full-Time Equivalent Employees in 2011

In March 2011, there were 16.4 million full-time equivalent employees working in state and local governments in the U.S., down 1.4 percent from 2010. According to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the majority of these employees (8.9 million) worked in education, followed by those working in hospitals (964,381), police protection (923,951) and corrections (717,940).

These estimates come from the 2011 Annual Survey of Public Employment & Payroll. The survey shows totals for state and local government full-time and part-time employment and details employment by government function at the national and state level. To arrive at the full-time equivalent employee calculation, the number of full-time employees is added to the number of hours worked by part-time employees divided by the standard number of hours for a full-time employee.

Quarterly Survey of Public Pensions

From the Census Bureau:

This quarterly survey (formerly known as the Finances of Selected State and Local Government Employee Retirement Systems Survey) provides national summary statistics on the revenues, expenditures and composition of assets of the 100 largest state and local public employee retirement systems in the United States. These 100 systems comprise 89.4 percent of financial activity among such entities, based on the 2007 Census of Governments. This survey presents the most current statistics about investment decisions by state and local public employee retirement systems, which are among the largest types of institutional investors in the U.S. financial markets. These statistical tables are published three months after each calendar quarter and show national financial transactions and trends for the past five years.

Subsidy Tracker: Discover Where Corporations are Getting Taxpayer Handouts Across the US

A growing number of state governments are disclosing which companies they are giving tax breaks and other subsidies in the name of job creation and economic development. Yet much of that information is being disseminated through hard-to-find reports and web pages. SUBSIDY TRACKER brings together the information from those far-flung sources--along with unpublished data obtained through open records requests--to create the first national search engine for state economic development subsidies.

Each entry identifies the recipient company and, depending on availability, provides data on the dollar value of the subsidy, the program and state agency involved, the location of the subsidized facility, and the employment impact of the subsidy. Each entry also indicates where the data came from, so the user can go to the original source for more details.

State Government Tax Collections

The State Government Tax Collections (STC) report provides a summary of taxes collected by state for up to 25 tax categories. These tables and data files present the details on tax collections by type of tax imposed and collected by state governments.

2010 Annual Survey of State Government Finances

Total state government revenue increased to $2.0 trillion in 2010, up 79.0 percent from $1.1 trillion in 2009, resulting mainly from large increases in social insurance trust revenue, according to the latest findings from the U.S. Census Bureau [PDF]. After a substantial loss in earnings in 2009, trust systems showed earnings of $450.5 billion in 2010, a gain of 218.2 percent over the year before.

Two major sources make up these trust systems: (1) employee retirement systems and (2) federal and state social insurance trust systems, which include the unemployment compensation system, state government worker's compensation programs, Social Security, Medicare, veteran's life insurance and railroad retirement.

Earnings on these systems vary widely year to year because state retirement systems invest heavily in financial markets and respond to shifts in market performance.

View the publication page for summary, tax, lottery and other data.

States see tax gains; local government​s feel recession'​s pain

States' tax revenues finished strong in 2010 and show solid gains through the early part of 2011, continuing a trend toward gradual fiscal recovery, according to the Rockefeller Institute's latest State Revenue Report.

State tax revenues grew by 7.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, compared to the fourth quarter of 2009, according to Rockefeller Institute research and Census Bureau data. This is the fourth consecutive quarter that states reported growth in collections on a year-over-year basis. Forty-two states reported tax revenue growth
during the fourth quarter, with nine showing double-digit growth. Preliminary figures for January and February 2011 indicate further strength in state tax revenues this year. Overall collections in 45 early-reporting states showed growth of 9.5 percent compared to the same months of 2010, and 7.5 percent compared to the same months of 2009.

Local tax revenues, however, have experienced the reverse trend. Tax collections by local governments declined by 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, mostly driven by declines in property tax collections. This is the result in part of the lagged impact of falling housing prices on property tax collections. Such a lag in the recession's impact on local government coffers is somewhat typical, say report authors Lucy Dadayan and Donald J. Boyd.

To read the full report, visit the Institute's Web site.
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Finances of Selected State and Local Government Employee Retirement

Finances of Selected State and Local Government Employee Retirement Systems is a quarterly survey that provides national summary data on the revenues, expenditures, and composition of assets of the largest state and local government employee retirement systems. This survey currently consists of a panel of 100 retirement systems, which comprise 89.4 percent of financial activity among such entities, based on the 2007 Census of Governments.

Government Employment & Payroll

Census Bureau collects federal, state and local government payroll data. It is NOT considered confidential under Title 13. The most recent data on employment and payroll is for 2009.

State Govt Revenues Decline Nearly 31 Percent

Total state government revenue dropped to $1.1 trillion in 2009, a decline of 30.8 percent from $1.6 trillion in 2008, according to the latest findings from the U.S. Census Bureau. The large decrease in total revenue was mainly caused by the substantial decrease in social insurance trust revenue.

State governments received nearly $1.5 trillion in general revenues in 2009, a decrease of 1.4 percent from 2008. General revenue does not include utility, liquor store or insurance trust revenue.

Total taxes collected in 2009 ($715.1 billion), which accounted for 47.9 percent of general revenue, fell by 8.5 percent from $781.6 billion in 2008. This is the first year-to-year decline in tax revenue since 2002. Federal grants ($477.7 billion) increased 12.9 percent from 2008 to 2009 and accounted for nearly one-third of general revenue.

“The annual survey began in 1951, and every year since has provided state governments with a complete look at their fiscal condition and how their financial activities stack up against other states,” said Lisa Blumerman, chief of the Census Bureau's Governments Division.

These findings come from the 2009 Annual Survey of State Government Finances, which reports revenues, expenditures, debt, and cash and security holdings for each state as well as a national summary.

2010 3Q Summary of State,Local Govt Tax Revenue

Tax revenues grew in the third quarter, marking the fourth straight quarter of positive growth. Property tax, general sales tax and individual income tax revenues increased, while corporate income tax revenue declined. The decline in corporate income tax revenue is the third consecutive quarter of decline. This summary shows quarterly tax revenue data on property, sales, license, income and other taxes. Data are shown for individual state governments as well as national-level estimates of total state and local taxes, including 12-month calculations. This quarterly survey has been conducted continuously since 1962.

State government employment drops below level at start of recession

Total employment by state governments has dipped below its level at the start of the recent recession for the first time, a new “Data Alert” from the Rockefeller Institute of Government shows. After rising for eight consecutive months after the recession began in December 2007, state and local government employment has declined for 17 of the last 23 months as states have experienced record declines in revenue. An extension of extraordinary federal aid to states, expected to be approved by Congress, “would likely dampen but not eliminate pressure for additional cuts in state and local government employment,” Institute researchers Donald J. Boyd and Lucy Dadayan write.
Click here for the Data Alert.