Budgets

In my state of Wisconsin, our new Republican governor is aggressively pursuing austerity measures to balance our budget. At the federal level, the Republicans in the House are pushing budget cuts so unpalatable to the Democratic controlled Senate and President that they would shut down the government. How much money is there? How much goes to the federal government? How much to the state?

National Gross Domestic Product is about $14,260B [1]. Median household income in the US as well as WI is about $52k [2]. In the US, of 117M households, the top 20% earned over $100k receiving 50% of all income and the top 5% earned over $180k receiving 22% of the total [3].

For the nation, the President's FY2012 proposed budget includes outlays of $3729B, receipts of $2627B, and a deficit of $1101B [4]. By my reckoning, $3729B/$14,260B = 25% of GDP, and the federal government is spending $3729B/117M households = $32k per household with 30% of that borrowed. For Wisconsin, the Governor's proposed budget for FY2013 includes $14.8B in General Purpose Revenue programs, 51% of which comes from state income tax [5].  That's $14.8B/2.1M households = $7k per household. So, for Wisconsin, total federal and state taxing and borrowing is around $39k per household.

1. 2009 GDP $14,260B  http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.CD

2. population 2009: US 307M WI 5.6M

median household income 2008: US $52,029 WI $52,103 http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html

3. 2008 US 117,181,000 households: top 20% above $100,240 per year, top 5% above $180,000 per year. Top 20% receives 50.0% of aggregate income. Top 5% receives 21.5% of aggregate income. http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2011/tables/11s0693.pdf

4. federal fy2012 (president's budget): receipts 2627B, outlays 3729B, deficit 1101B

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BUDGET-2012-BUD/pdf/BUDGET-2012-BUD.pdf

5. Wisconsin fy2013 http://www.doa.state.wi.us/debf/pdf_files/bib1113.pdf