Total State Expenditures Research Articles

Urban Roadway in America: The Amount, Extent, and Value

Problem, research strategy, and findings We predicted the amount, share, and value of land dedicated to roadways within and across 316 U.S. primary metropolitan statistical areas. Despite the amount and value of land dedicated to roadways, our study provides the first such estimate across a broad range of metropolitan areas. Our basic approach was to estimate roadway widths using a 10% sample of widths provided by the Highway Performance Monitoring System and apply our estimates to the rest of the roadway system. Multiplying estimated widths by segment length and netting out double counting at intersections provided estimates of land area. We also matched roadway segments and areas to existing land value estimates and satellite-based measures of urbanized land. We found that a little less than a quarter of urbanized land—roughly the size of West Virginia—was dedicated to roadway. This land was worth around $4.1 trillion in 2016 and had an annualized value that was higher than the total variable costs of the trucking sector and the total annual federal, state, and local expenditures on roadways. Conducting a back-of-the-envelope cost–benefit analysis, we found that the country likely has too much land dedicated to urban roads. Takeaway for practice Federal, state, and local agencies dedicate substantial time, money, and resources to providing roadways. Even with relatively generous assumptions and no external costs from driving, however, we estimated that the average cost of expanding roadways exceeded the benefits by a factor of nearly three when accounting for land value. Policymakers should question policies focused on roadway expansion and consider options to reduce the amount of space dedicated to roadway in favor of more housing, offices, and other land uses. In addition to our findings, we provide a novel data set that academics and policymakers can use to draw their own conclusions about the state of America’s urban roadways.

Riding to Learn, Learning to Ride: Early School-busing in Connecticut, 1900–1945

Riding to Learn, Learning to Ride: Early School-busing in Connecticut, 1900–1945

State Environmental Expenditures in New England and Their Relationship to Other Programmatic and Political Metrics

State environmental agencies have developed into one of the primary mechanisms by which public health and quality of life is managed and protected within the United States. This analysis attempts to provide some understanding of what economic and political factors may be influencing funding for state environmental agencies in six New England states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The demographic makeup of New England, an area that is relatively well-off, highly educated, socially liberal, and diverse, make it the ideal place to test the relationships between state environmental agency spending and other key economic and political metrics.Financial data sets evaluated as part of this study include state spending on 11 common programmatic areas. Non-financial data sets in this analysis include the percentage of voters casting ballots by political party for Democratic presidential candidates, U.S. Senators, U.S Representatives, and Governors, as well as the composition by political party of the upper and lower houses of state legislatures. A Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient was used to compare each state’s environmental expenditures with the 17 independent variable data sets.Natural Resource spending was positively correlated with Education spending in five states. Total (state) Expenditures also correlate positively with Natural Resource spending. General Revenues, similar to Total Expenditures, positively correlate with Natural Resource spending in five states, suggesting that state environmental agencies are effective bureaucratically in lobbying for and obtaining needed funding. State environmental agencies funding correlated positively with the percent of the electorate voting for the Democratic Presidential candidate in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. This correlation is similar to those noted by other researchers, but the remaining state-level political data sets were less useful in establishing potential relationships.

The Fiscal Capacity of the New Autonomous Region (DOB) in Increasing Economic Growth and Eradication of the Poor

Indonesia has conducted territorial expansion to improve public services, create more effective governance, and increase regional development. Territorial expansion was accompanied by fiscal Decentralization, so that allowed the regions to manage their finances by arranging regional development programs and other planning. However, in its implementation, Decentralization, which has been running for two decades, has experienced problems such as the financial over-dependence on central government and development inequity, which has further implications for eradicating the poor. The purpose of this research is to analyze to what extent the territorial expansion that have been running is able to increase the fiscal revenue of new autonomous regions (DOB) in order to maximize economic growth, equitable territorial development and regional development to be able to eradicate the poor and improve the welfare of the community. The research method uses descriptive methods with a qualitative approach. This study uses data from a period of 2015 to 2019 in accordance with the National Mid-Term Development Plan (RPJMN). The results showed that the development of new autonomous regions in the era of post-reform regional autonomy were 8 provinces, 181 districts and 34 cities. Therefore, the allocation of transfer funds to the regions is increasing every year. For the 2020 State Budget, around Rp.858 trillion or around 34.6% of total state expenditure. However, ironically, the over-dependence of DOB on fiscal Decentralization has not declined. If seen from the ratio of PAD to total regional income, it is known that DOB currently still depends on the parent region or central government, while the DOB growth rate is lower comparing to their parent region. On the other hand, the focus of DOB development is more on government facilities and infrastructure. Although in some new autonomous regions, there is a decrease in poverty, in general, poverty levels in new autonomous regions are relatively higher than in parent regions.

Exploring the Time-Varying Determinants of State Spending on Corrections

The current study examines the percentage of a state’s total expenditures that is allocated for corrections in an attempt to untangle how the influence of key determinants helped to shift state resources in ways likely to aid prison expansion. This study further attempts to address how the salience of crime, partisan politics, and racial and social threats may have shifted over time and across regions. The study employs a pooled time-series analysis of 49 states from 1971 through 2008, with a final sample size of N = 1862 cases, to examine the factors that help to predict the log-transformed percent of total state expenditures allocated for the total direct expenditures on corrections. The current study finds that determinants of state-level corrections spending vary across time. Violent crime had a positive and significant influence on corrections spending during the 80s, while Republican strength was similarly associated with increases in spending from the 80s through the 90s. Further, beginning in the 80s, percentage African-American were negatively associated with the proportion of budget allocated for corrections. The findings presented in this study emphasize the importance of time and place when trying to untangle trends in correctional budget decision-making.

The role of a deductible/credit system for post-disaster public assistance in meeting alternative policy goals

We analyze a major potential reform of the current FEMA Public Assistance Program that would establish a deductible against the coverage of losses and would offer credits for expenditure on risk reduction by states as an incentive to offset the deductible. While the current FEMA Program is targeted primarily towards repairing damaged property, there is a potential to formulate a Deductible/Credit System (DCS), so as to achieve a reduction in other worthy goals as well, such as reducing fatalities and accelerating recovery. We analyze the effect of the DCS on the achievement of these alternative goals and on state and federal expenditure under various assumptions about which types of disaster losses are eligible for credits. Although the effect of the DCS depends on how states respond to the credit incentive, it is unlikely to reduce total state expenditure on the combination of risk reduction and disaster losses in the short term.

Trends in State Government Park and Recreation: Expenditures and Employment – 2000 to 2014

This manuscript is a replication of a 2004 study by Crompton and Kaczynski, providing trend data for state expenditures on parks, recreation, and related services, as well as park and recreation employment at the state government level. Whereas Crompton and Kaczynski examined the final decade of the 20th century, the present analysis covers the period of 2000-2001 to 2013-2014 (2014-2015 for employment data). With the seismic economic upheaval in the United States during this period, the time is ripe for such a replication analysis. While the original study period largely saw consistent growth in the American economy, the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009 was the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. Using census data, all figures were adjusted for inflation, and are reported in 2014 dollars unless otherwise noted. While Crompton and Kaczynski (2004) reported growth in both total state spending and expenditures on parks and recreation during the 1990s, data from the current period of analysis reveal a starkly different situation. During the study period, total direct expenditures across all state government service areas increased by approximately 22%; growth was relatively flat in the post-recession period, rising less than 3%. State expenditures on parks and recreation fell by 29% across the study period, including an 18% decrease in the post-recession period. Non-capital expenditures fell by nearly 18% across the study period, and by nearly 13% in the post-recession period; capital expenditures fell approximately 63% across the study period, and 42% in the post-recession period. As a result, park and recreation expenditures fell as a proportion of total state expenditures from .54% to .31%. Self-generated revenue fell by 16% across the study period, and by 13% in the post-recession period. As in the original analysis, expenditures and self-generated revenue varied widely on a state-by-state basis. In contrast to the original analysis, the number of full-time employees increased: by 6% across the study period, and 5% post-recession. As in the original analysis part-time employees decreased, by nearly 22% across the study period, and 17% post-recession. In adjusted dollar terms, full-time annual salaries fell from nearly $52,000 in 2000-2001 to approximately $44,000 in 2014-2015, an almost 14% decline. Part-time hourly wages fell from a peak of $17.88 pre-recession to $14.40 post-recession, a decrease of nearly 20%. In light of this information, implications for the public, practitioners, advocates, researchers, and educators are discussed.Subscribe to JPRA

Unfunded Mandates and Fiscal Structure: Empirical Evidence from a Synthetic Control Model

An unfunded expenditure mandate occurs when a local government must provide a good or service by dictate of a higher level of government without an accompanying revenue source to fully finance it. This paper is the first to provide empirical evidence on the influence of local unfunded mandates by studying Florida’s 1990 constitutional Amendment 3, which sought to limit this power of the state. A synthetic control model is employed to derive the causal effects of the mandate limit on total state expenditures and state transfers to local governments. The results indicate that the additional barriers to imposing local mandates resulted in substantive changes to the fiscal structure of the state. First, state expenditures increased by an annual average of 9.5%. Second, while total state transfers to local governments are not altered, the mandate restrictions did impact which governments received transfers. Namely, the general purpose local governments protected by Amendment 3 saw 10% decreases in intergovernmental revenue from the state. The inference is that the mandate limit caused the state to take on new programs and spending that would otherwise have been shifted to the general purpose governments, and that remaining mandates were more likely to be directed at special districts.

An examination of US state pensions by total state expenditures, state budget deficit and red v. blue state

Pensions are important to government employees. In the USA, some states fund almost 100% of the present value of future pension obligations; while in other states, the funding is substantially lacking. Results of this study show that states with lower state expenditures per capita, relative to states with higher expenditures, have provided better funding of their state pensions. States with lower budget deficits, relative to states with higher budget deficits, paid a significantly higher percent of annual required contributions. This suggests that states that are more fiscally conservative (lower budget deficit) do a better job of making required annual contributions to their state pensions. The red (Republican) states paid a higher proportion of required annual contributions than blue (Democrat) states, 90 versus 84%, respectively; but this difference was not statistically significant. All states have an ethical responsibility to meet the pension obligations owed to their state government employees.

An Examination of Seven Sociopolitical Factors and Their Connection with State Environmental Expenditures

<p class="1"><span lang="EN-GB">State environmental agencies serve as first-responders during and after environmental disasters (man-made or natural), track and identify individuals and businesses that violate anti-pollution statutes, and function as scientific and data-gathering centers for policy makers. The robustness of a state environmental agency’s budget also can be a measure of a state’s environmental commitment. An understanding of the funding dynamics associated with establishing a state’s environmental agency budget is a complex political ballet with often mysterious and competing forces influencing the financial choreography. </span></p><p class="1"><span lang="EN-GB">This paper analyzes possible political and cultural influences on budgetary outcomes in an attempt to identify those common, underlying, non-econometric factors that may drive or significantly contribute to state environmental agency funding. Those described here include, for 49 states (exclusive of Hawaii) between 2000 and 2009, total state expenditures, per capita income, educational attainment, agency staffing, environmental quality as measured through impaired waters, citizen ideology, and state agency performance. A Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient is used to compare state environmental expenditures to these seven data sets. </span></p><p class="1"><span lang="EN-GB">Those states showing the biggest change (positive or negative) in annual environmental agency budgets also have the strongest correlation (positive or negative) with the total number of independent variables. This relationship implies that changes to sociopolitical factors may sway or have an influence on state environmental agency funding. As the number of correlations increase, their effect on agency funding may become more pronounced. This suggests a “critical mass” type relationship. Alternatively, as more sociopolitical factors combine to compel either increases or decreases in environmental agency funding, legislative priorities might be re-organized to accommodate that pressure with funding levels adjusted accordingly. The confluence of these special interests, either positively or negatively, may force environmental agency funding levels to overcome or shed local suppressive or masking effects (political scandals, policy distractions, etc.) to more closely reflect constituent demands and concerns. </span></p>

State Environmental Expenditures and Their Correlation with Seven Econometric Factors

Most states assume administrative ownership of federal environmental programs and tailor them to match their special jurisdictional needs. However, with primacy comes a performance obligation and, given declining federal EPA budgets and staffing levels, the monitoring and enforcement burdens associated with environmental regulations have shifted to the states. As the most visible regulatory and administrative force responsible for protecting the nation’s environment, the ability of state DEPs, DEQs, and DECs to effectively serve its citizens and constructively interact with the regulated community is critically dependent on the resources made available to it. Without adequate funding, the compliance and enforcement components of state environmental agency programs become mere paper tigers – threatening but ineffectual and without real substance. What factors influence the amount of spending states direct towards environmental programs? For the purposes of this paper, non-capital environmental expenditures between 2000 and 2009, adjusted to 2010 dollars, were chosen as the dependent variable for 49 states, exclusive of Hawaii because of its unique ecological and economic setting. Seven data sets were selected as independent variables; those possibly explaining or accounting for a state’s environmental spending choices. These include: population, total state expenditures, Gross State Product or GSP, the manufacturing and mining sectors of Gross State Product (M&M GSP), unemployment rates, total amounts (in pounds) of chemicals regulated by the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) for discharges to air (fugitive and point source) and surface water, and health ranking score by state. A Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient was used to compare environmental expenditures for each state with the seven data sets. Population (in 15 states), GSP (in 21 states), M&M GSP (in 12 states) and total state expenditures (in 17 states) are the independent variables that seem to have the most connection with environmental expenditures. Each of these ties directly to the overall financial capacity of a state and they are roughly split in defining positive and negative relationships between the variables.

Medicaid Politics: Federalism, Policy Durability, and Health Reform

Medicaid Politics: Federalism, Policy Durability, and Health Reform

A re‐examination of Wagner's Law using US total state and local expenditure and its sub‐categories

PurposeThis paper seeks to examine the validity of Wagner's Law using annual data (1957‐2006) for the US state‐local government (SLG) real expenditure and eight of its sub‐categories.Design/methodology/approachThe co‐integration tests of Johansen and the bounds testing approach to co‐integration proposed by Pesaran et al. were carried out to determine whether a long‐term equilibrium relationship existed between real per capita GDP (pcgdp) and the expenditure variables scaled by real GDP. The income elasticity coefficients of the expenditure variables were then estimated. The direction of causality was tested in the context of error‐correction models (ECM) and the Toda‐Yamamoto approach, which allows for estimating level relationships without pre‐testing for unit roots.FindingsMost SLG expenditure variables were found to be non‐stationary and income‐elastic. However, with the exception of total expenditure (te), insurance trust benefits (ins) and social services and income maintenance (ssim), no other non‐stationary expenditure variable was co‐integrated with pcgdp and error‐corrected over time. The ECM results suggested that te, ins and ssim were driven by pcgdp, consistent with a Wagnerian causal ordering. The Toda‐Yamamoto approach, however, indicated that in these and a few other cases the causal effect was bidirectional.Originality/valueThis paper provides a fairly comprehensive test of Wagner's Law at the US sub‐national government level with an emphasis on the concepts of co‐integration and (long‐run) causality in the income‐expenditure nexus. Its findings underscore the importance of using disaggregated expenditure measures to test Wagner's Law, as they suggest that some, but not all, rapidly growing and non‐stationary expenditure sub‐categories were decoupled from pcgdp in the long run.

Financing Public Health Services in the Republic of Belarus

State expenditure is one of the elements of fi nancial public activity. The maintenance, structure and size of state expenditure are defi ned by problems and requirements expressed in the forecasts of development of a public economy, and specifi c targets set at a given stage of development. Public health services fi nancing takes an important place in total state expenditure. Therefore, jurisprudence traditionally focuses on the issues of effi ciency of providing access to medical resources and the perfection of mechanisms of formation of fi nancial resources in public health services. A search for the effective system of fi nancing of public health services is the State’s aim. At present we may talk about two ways of fi nancing of the state system of public health services in the Republic of Belarus: budgetary and off-budget. The basic source of fi nancing of public health services are the means of the state budget allocated according to the specifi cation of budgetary security of expenses on public health services calculated per one inhabitant. Specifi cations of budgetary security of expenses on public health services are prepared and approved of on statutory basis. In the specifi cation of the budget and in the course of its execution in connection with changes of terms of payment, the prices for the goods and services in the planned assignments are subject to indexation (without actual increase of expenses on public health services organizations).

Stellung und Einbindung der Radiologie in einem Großklinikum

Radiology has undergone enormous technological and hence organizational changes in the last few decades. These changes occurred more or less in unison with total state expenditures for healthcare, whereas individual disposable income increased twice as much in the same timeframe (1988-2003). Costs for medical technology account for approximately 3-5% of national healthcare expenditures. On the national level, but also in a central hospital setting, radiology does not constitute a major cost factor. Tomographic investigations have increased by 2-3% in recent years and currently represent 30% of all radiological procedures. Increasing sophistication of diagnostics and treatment using genetic and molecular techniques, novel information technologies, and a critical evidence-based approach to all functional activity will result in a further explosion of knowledge. Radiology must meet these challenges head on by intensifying all forms of training, from basics to continuing professional education.

What's green about the 1996 award-winning school districts: A comparison of Indiana's districts containing Blue Ribbon winners with 30 randomly selected Indiana school districts

The relationship between spending on education and equal opportunity has been a subject of debate for several decades. This study aims to shed light on this debate by examining correlations between the distribution of Blue Ribbon awards to Indiana middle and high schools and per pupil expenditure. Based on criteria that include curricula, instruction, school climate, leadership, community support, goal setting and attainment, success with all students, skill development, and character education, Blue Ribbon School awards are a recognition of outstanding achievement given by the federal government. Using total federal, state, and local expenditures as the basis for comparison, we found that the federal government did not select more wealthy schools than poor schools for the Indiana Blue Ribbon School awards. However, there was a large difference in the expenditures per pupil in the Indiana districts with Blue Ribbon schools vs. the 30 randomly selected Indiana districts without Blue Ribbon schools. Total l...

The cost of epilepsy in patients attending a specialist epilepsy service

Epilepsy is a common disability, especially in young adults, and, as the costs to the community are likely to be high, estimates are required to plan health and community care. The neurological unit of Dundee Royal Infirmary provides an epilepsy clinic for the Tayside region (population 300,000) and in 1991 the records of over 303 patients were computerized using the Epicare system developed by Sanofi-Winthrop. It was calculated that the total state expenditure on care was 662,919 pounds (2188 pounds/head) in 1991. The direct health costs were obtained by reviewing database entries and medical records and were estimated to be 159,192 pounds (24%), including 77,171 pounds for drugs, 64,750 pounds for hospital care and 17,271 pounds for general practice consultations. The cost of welfare payments was 503,728 pounds/year (76%) (4419 pounds/recipient). The transfer payments to patients with epilepsy greatly exceed the costs of health care and any management strategy which improves the prospects for employment and independence of people with epilepsy is likely to produce significant fiscal benefits for both the individual and the state.

Achievements and Challenges II: An Analysis of 1990 Supported Employment Expenditures

This article describes and discusses the supported employment fiscal activities of the states. Data from a survey of fiscal year 1990 supported employment fiscal activity across the United States are presented, and fund source utilization patterns are compared to those from previous years' surveys. Supported employment expenditures grew approximately 19% from 1989 to 1990. Non-vocational rehabilitation (VR) funds accounted for two thirds of total state expenditures for supported employment. Title I was the largest source of VR supported employment funding, indicating that states are using more general case service dollars and general state revenue to fund supported employment. This change is indicative of supported employment's increasing integration into the VR system.

Factors That Influence State Funding for Mental Health Research

A 50-state survey was conducted to identify the extent of and the factors associated with states' funding of mental health research. Of the 49 states responding, 28 funded mental health research. Funds for research represented about .3 percent of total state expenditures for mental health. More populous states were more likely to fund mental health research. A moderately high correlation was found between state funding for research and federal research funding, and a modest but statistically significant correlation was found between state funding for research and total state expenditures for mental health. No correlation was found between state mental health research funding and state per capita mental health expenditures. Political environments supportive of mental health research were characterized by budget stability, articulate and committed leaders, and active citizen advocacy.

Poverty Spending and the Poverty Gap

This paper examines two questions basic to welfare policy: (1) whether the amount of poverty-related transfers is sufficient to fill the poverty gap, and (2) which families actually get benefits and how much of their income deficit is filled by those benefits. Transfers are sufficient: the post-Social Security poverty gap is $74 billion while poverty-related programs total $198 billion. Further, 86% of current income-conditioned benefits go to the pretransfer poor and 89% of those are used to alleviate poverty (fill the poverty gap). Thus, if a substantial fraction of total Federal and State expenditures on poverty-related programs could be targeted more toward the poor, the poverty gap can be eliminated. The current programs, however, would have to be changed substantially to achieve the necessary retargeting.