EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EDT, September 2, 1998 (Wednesday) Public Information Office CB98-162 301-457-3030-/301-457-3670 (fax) 301-457-4067 (TDD) e-mail: pio@census.gov David Kellerman 301-457-1502 Nearly One-Third of 1997 State Expenditures Spent on Education, Census Bureau Reports Nearly $276 billion (31 percent) of 1997 state government expenditures went to education and $203 billion (23 percent) were spent on public welfare, according to new data on U.S. and state government revenue and expendit ures released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau. (The embargoed tabulations can be accessed at http://www.census.gov/dcmd/www/embargo/embargo.html. After the release time the data can be accessed at http://www.census.gov/govs/www/index.html.) State revenues and expenditures nationwide totaled $1.0 trillion and $893 billion, respectively. While California collected more revenue and spent more than any other state, the most revenue and expenditure per capita belonged to Alaska. Florida had the lowest per capita revenues and Texas had the lowest per capita expenditures. The 1997 Annual Survey of Government Finances also contains dollar figures on topics such as expenditures for highways, health care and hospitals, insurance trusts and correctional facilities. The data in the tabulations came from administrative records of state government agencies and were not subject to sampling. Quality-assurance procedures were applied to all phases of collection, process ing and tabulation to minimize nonsampling errors. However, the data are still subject to possible error from miscoding, omission or difficulty in identifying every agency that should be included in the report.-X-Editor's Note: The Public Information Office now has a media-access server for embargoed news releases and data sets. It is available to accredited media representatives only. To gain access, please contact us for a usern ame and password. The media-access server's Internet address is http://www.census.gov/dcmd/www/embargo/embargo.html. We would appreciate any comments you may have about the site. The Census Bureau pre-eminent collector and provider of timely, relevant and quality data about the people and economy of the United States. In more than 100 surveys annually and 20 censuses a decade, evolving from the first census in 1790, the Census B ureau provides official information about America's people, businesses, industries and institutions.
