November 20, 2014 2:42 PM

Greenfield: The Year That Was – State Expenditures in Fiscal Year 2014

Economist Stuart Greenfield on where the dollars really went

Along with the increase (6.0 percent) in total revenue, total expenditures also increased by a substantial amount (6.6 percent) in fiscal year 2014 (FY14). Of the $6.2 billion increase in state expenditures in FY14, over half (50.6 percent) was accounted for by the increase in Public Assistance Payments, primarily Medicaid, while 20.5 percent of the increase was for public education.

As shown in Table 1, two items, public assistance payments (38.5 percent, an increase from FY13), and public education payments (24.7 percent, a decrease from FY13) accounted for almost 2/3^rds of state expenditures.

The complete column from Dr. Stuart Greenfield can be found in the R&D Department.

By Stuart Greenfield, Ph.D.