EMBARGOED UNTIL: 10 A.M. SEPTEMBER 15, 1997 (MONDAY) Public Information Office CB97-146 301-457-3030-/301-457-3670 (fax) 301-457-4067 (TDD) e-mail:pio@census.gov David Kellerman 301-457-1502 Nearly One-Third of 1996 State Expenditures Spent on Education, According to Census Bureau Data for 50 States Nearly one-third (31 percent) of 1996 state expenditures went to education and 23 percent were spent on public welfare, new data on revenue and expenditures for the 50 states and the nation show. The data were released on the Internet today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau. Nationwide, state revenues and expenditures totaled $967 billion and $860 billion respectively. California had the largest amount of state revenues in 1996, collecting $123 billion. Forty-seven percent or $58 billion of these revenues were from taxes, 23 percent from intergovernmental aid and 20 percent from insurance trust revenue. Expenditures for California reached $113 billion in 1996, with education ($35 billion) and public welfare ($29 billion) accounting for more than 55 percent of the total. Vermont had the lowest revenues of any state at $2.1 billion and one of the lowest expenditure levels at $2.1 billion. The 1996 Annual Survey of Government Finances also provides figures on topics such as expenditures for highways, health care and hospitals, insurance trusts and correction facilities. Data in this report came from administrative records of state government agencies. Quality assurance procedures were applied to all phases of collection, procession and tabulation to minimize errors. However, the data are still subject to possible error from miscoding, omission or difficulty in identifying every agency that should be included in this report. The Internet address for these tables is http://www.census.gov/govs/www/. To obtain a paper copy, call the Public Information Office on 301-457-3030.-X-The Census Bureau--pre-eminent collector and provider of timely, relevant, and quality data about the people and economy of the United States. In over 100 surveys annually and 20 censuses a decade, evolving from the first census in 1790, the Census Bureau provides official information about America's people, businesses, industries and institutions.
