Delaware residents, who voted overwhelmingly for President Barack Obama in 2012, get 50 cents in federal funding for every $1 in federal income taxes they pay.
Mississippi — 55.5% for Mitt Romney — cashes in with $3.07 in federal funding for every dollar paid in income taxes.
Those findings come from a new analysis by WalletHub. The personal finance social network crunched returns on taxes paid to the federal government, federal funding as a percent of state revenue and the number of federal employees per capita to conclude that Red States “are altogether more reliant on federal funding than Blue States.”
That often correlates to lower state taxes. “The more dependent a state is on the federal government, the less likely it is to charge high tax rates,” Wallethub says.
Some of the results correspond with a recent study by the Tax Foundation, which showed that federal aid accounted for 45.8% of Mississippi’s revenue, ranking it first. The Magnolia state also has among the lowest tax burdens in the nation.
Of course, there are exceptions. Kansas, for instance, gets back less than it sends to the federal government. Some 60% of the state’s voters favored Mr. Romney.
The above map shows one WalletHub metric: how many dollars in federal funding state taxpayers receive for every one dollar in federal income taxes they pay. The figures exclude loans and guarantees
Which States Take the Most From the U.S. Government? (Mar 27, 2014 WSJ Business )
Add in: two Air Force bases, numerous ICBM facilities, Miles of Federal highway, Ag subsidies, Red River Flood aid, a National Park in two units, and a smattering of other odds and ends with a relatively low population and North Dakota supposedly takes in more than it pays in income taxes, too (although that may have changed a mite with the oil boom).
It all depends on how the money is spent, and what counts.