[ravensandricks]

I’ve heard this trope many times, that we on the coast are “subsidizing” the “red states,” but I’ve never seen what exactly that means. How exactly are my tax dollars (and yours, I presume) being used to keep (I guess) southern and midwestern states afloat? Can you provide examples?

[Citizen Blade]

I’ve heard this trope many times, that we on the coast are “subsidizing” the “red states,” but I’ve never seen what exactly that means. How exactly are my tax dollars (and yours, I presume) being used to keep (I guess) southern and midwestern states afloat? Can you provide examples?

It's a measure of how much a State sends in to the Federal treasury versus what it gets back. Take a look at this chart:

Return on Tax Dollar Per State

You'll see that for every dollar people in New England send to the Feds, they get 86 cents back. Meanwhile, people in the South get $1.19 back for every dollar they send in. Mississippi gets back more than $2 for every $1 they pay into the treasury.

Which stands to reason- the Red States tend to be poorer and less economically developed than the Blue States (with exceptions on both sides, of course). They require more Federal dollars to meet their various needs.

[Jack Black]

I’ve heard this trope many times, that we on the coast are “subsidizing” the “red states,” but I’ve never seen what exactly that means. How exactly are my tax dollars (and yours, I presume) being used to keep (I guess) southern and midwestern states afloat? Can you provide examples?

There are all sorts of claims and counter-claims that are made but in truth it is hard to say. Is a SSI recipient in New York a federal subsidy to the state?

Wikipedia Article on Tax and Spending across the states

Here is the most recent report I've seen on it, but it's from way back in 1995:

Spending by state report

The top five states in federal spending per capita were:

Rank State Amount Per Capita
1 Virginia $7,830
2 Maryland $7,361
3 New Mexico $7,130
4 Alaska $6,927
5 Hawaii $6,386
The county report shows the top five recipient county areas were:

Rank County/County Equivalent Amount
1 New York City, NY $40.6
billion 2 Los Angeles County, CA $40.2
billion 3 Cook County, IL $23.0
billion 4 San Diego County, CA $16.5
billion 5 Philadelphia County, PA $12.2
billion

Direct payments for individuals was the largest federal spending category in each of those top five counties.

Defense spending, which includes payroll, defense contracts and grants, and military pensions, totaled $228 billion in 1995. The top five recipient counties of federal defense spending were:

Rank County Amount
1 Los Angeles County, CA $7.9 billion
2 San Diego County, CA $7.4 billion
3 St. Louis City, MO $5.7 billion
4 Newport News City, VA $4.2 billion
5 Fairfax County, VA $4.2 billion