Do Red states get more funding than blue states?
The answer to this question on liberal websites is considered common knowledge; of course Red states get more federal aid and of course blue states fund the rest of America. Let's look at the stimulus package and where the money is going to see if this piece of gospel lives up to it's expectations. I am using this breakdown, downloadable here (state by state from Center on Budget and Policy Priorities);
The stimulus bill allocates $39.5 Billion for education and $8.8 billion for other services. There is also apparently another $5 billion for incentive grants, but this particular sum is not broken down yet. So we will use the $48.3 billion figure. All in all, these funds will be used to fund everything the states require including paying out all non-federal aid.
Some of the biggest recipients of funding are as follows:
(First number is from the education block grant, second number is the all purpose block grant)
Note: Blue States and Red States are being defined by how each state voted in 2008.
Blue States:
California $4,875.5 $1,084.8
Florida $2,208.8 $491.5
Illinois $1,681.1 $374.0
Massachusetts $813.3 $181.0
Michigan $1,302.4 $289.8
New Jersey $1,088.3 $242.1
New York $2,468.6 $549.2
North Carolina $1,161.9 $258.5
Ohio $1,463.7 $325.7
Pennsylvania $1,558.8 $346.8
Washington $819.9 $182.4
Total: 19.1B + 4.3B = $23.4B
Red States:
Texas $3,250.3 $723.2
Georgia $1,260.8 $280.5
Virginia $983.9 $218.9
Indiana $823.7 $183.3
Arizona $831.9 $185.1
Total: 7.1B + 1.6B = $8.7B
This snapshot alone indicates that blue states are lined up to receive almost 3 times as much as red states. In order to avoid skewing of results due to small samples, I have compiled a spreadsheet in Excel (email me if you wish to see it) and labeled each state as either D or R and ran summation functions.
Results:
Total Democrat: 27,468.90 - 6,111.60 - Total Money: $33,580.50
Total Republican: 11,525.60 -2,564.50 - Total Money: $14,090.10
The 3:1 ratio drops to slightly more than 2:1, but the gospel spread by liberal forums and bloggers seem to be nothing more than a myth.
The stimulus bill allocates $39.5 Billion for education and $8.8 billion for other services. There is also apparently another $5 billion for incentive grants, but this particular sum is not broken down yet. So we will use the $48.3 billion figure. All in all, these funds will be used to fund everything the states require including paying out all non-federal aid.
Some of the biggest recipients of funding are as follows:
(First number is from the education block grant, second number is the all purpose block grant)
Note: Blue States and Red States are being defined by how each state voted in 2008.
Blue States:
California $4,875.5 $1,084.8
Florida $2,208.8 $491.5
Illinois $1,681.1 $374.0
Massachusetts $813.3 $181.0
Michigan $1,302.4 $289.8
New Jersey $1,088.3 $242.1
New York $2,468.6 $549.2
North Carolina $1,161.9 $258.5
Ohio $1,463.7 $325.7
Pennsylvania $1,558.8 $346.8
Washington $819.9 $182.4
Total: 19.1B + 4.3B = $23.4B
Red States:
Texas $3,250.3 $723.2
Georgia $1,260.8 $280.5
Virginia $983.9 $218.9
Indiana $823.7 $183.3
Arizona $831.9 $185.1
Total: 7.1B + 1.6B = $8.7B
This snapshot alone indicates that blue states are lined up to receive almost 3 times as much as red states. In order to avoid skewing of results due to small samples, I have compiled a spreadsheet in Excel (email me if you wish to see it) and labeled each state as either D or R and ran summation functions.
Results:
Total Democrat: 27,468.90 - 6,111.60 - Total Money: $33,580.50
Total Republican: 11,525.60 -2,564.50 - Total Money: $14,090.10
The 3:1 ratio drops to slightly more than 2:1, but the gospel spread by liberal forums and bloggers seem to be nothing more than a myth.
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