The chart below illustrates three different measures of the federal deficit. You choose:  Which number do you like best? 

For 2024, the blue bar shows a budget deficit of $1.8 trillion, as reported in the Financial Report of the U.S. Government for the Reconciliation of Net Operating Cost and Budget Deficit. This figure is derived from cash accounting and indicates that outlays exceed inflows. The difference between the budget deficit and net operating cost primarily arises from accrued costs (expenses that have been incurred but not yet paid). These accrued costs are included in the net operating cost but are excluded from the budget deficit.

The green bar represents a deficit of $2.4 trillion, which comes from the federal government's income statement, known as the "Statement of Operations and Changes in Net Position." This measure is discussed alongside the budget deficit and provides a closer approximation of the change in the federal government's net position from an accrual accounting perspective.

Finally, the red bar shows Truth in Accounting's calculation of the federal government's change in net position, which highlights a deficit of $2.46 trillion, also based on accrual accounting. This calculation includes changes in the government's unfunded off-balance sheet debts, such as unfunded Social Security and Medicare promises.  

For more financial information for the U.S. federal government visit Data-Z.org.

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Between 2019 and 2024 public school enrollment in the U.S. decreased by over 1.3 million.  The three states that lost the most were California, New York and Illinois.  The states that gained the most students were Texas, Florida and South Carolina. This is not all that surprising since these three states have also ranked among the states to have the largest percentage increases in population in recent years, while the biggest losers have consistently ranked among the states to lose the most residents. There are, of course, myriad reasons that overall student enrollment has declined--too many to speculate about here--but the Covid pandemic may have been the most important factor.

For more information about public school enrollment go to Data-Z.org, where you can compare states going back to 1999.  You can also explore our many demographic, economic and financlal data series for all 50 states.  READ MORE

What state consumes the most turkey per person on Thanksgiving?  Why, California, of course--the largest state in the Union.  Besides turkeys consumed, California also has the most federal taxpayers, according to the IRS.  However, in 2023 California lost the most tax filers, 1,277,731 to be precise.  No other state lost tax filers.

And where did those tax filers go?  Well, maybe they wll be eating turkey in Florida and Texas, which both saw an increase of over one million tax filers.  No other states came even close to gaining that many taxpayers. So is California a turkey state in more ways than one?  READ MORE

Truth in Accounting's most recent Financial State of the States, which came out on October 3, 2024, shows that only three out of the seven swing states had a Taxpayer Surplus^TM according to their ACFR data for 2023.  All the swing states had a Taxpayer Burden^TM  between 2014 and 2020.  The states that switched from having a burden to having a surplus were Georgia, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.  The other four swing states--Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania--maintained their burden status at least through 2022.  Two of those states, Arizona and Nevada, did not release their financial statements in time to be included in our report.  

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According to the Mercatus Center, the state of New York came in second highest in terms of state regulations. The Center quantifies the number of regulations because their "research indicates that regulatory accumulation worsens economic conditions, inadvertently increasing poverty rates, destroying jobs, and raising prices. The path to reversing these trends is clear: Improve regulations by reducing their number. Our State RegData project has produced "snapshots" of state regulations that can help policymakers engage in that process."

In addition, New York ranks highest in terms of lawyers per 10,000 residents according to the American Bar Association and TIA calculations.  It has 95.72 lawyers per 10,000 residents, while Massachusetts, the next highest state, has 61.06 lawyers per 10,000 residents.  Is this a coincidence, a correlation, or a cause?  You decide and check the numbers for your state at Data.Z.org.

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Timeliness of an annual report is the number of days between a city or state's fiscal year-end and the date it publishes its Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR). For the publishing date, TIA uses the date on the letter of transmittal, which is typically found near the beginning of the ACFR.

It is crucial for citizens to have their government’s financial information in a timely manner. Due to the tardiness of Arizona, California, Iowa, Oklahoma and Nevada in releasing their financial reports, we were unable to include the newest data in our Financial State of the States 2023 report which was published in October 2023.  In mid July 2024 we were finally able to update our data on Data-z.org to include the 2022 data from those five delinquent states. 

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Last week we showed you the top five losers in the migration of adjusted gross income for 2022 (the latest year available).  Those five states lost a total of over $57 billion dollars.  And where did that money go?  Well, overwhelmingly to Florida which saw an influx of over $36 billion. The other four states (Texas, South Carolina, Tennessee, and North Carolina) combined received over $24 billion in increased income from taxpayers moving to those states. Large numbers of taxpayers have been moving to these states at least since 2012.  

To learn more about where your state ranks in net migration of AGI, taxpayers, and exemptions, go to Data-Z.org.    READ MORE

What do California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York have in common?  Well, according to the latest IRS tax migration data, those five states all rank at the bottom of the list for losing the most taxpayers, the most adjusted gross income (AGI), and the most AGI per taxpayer.  Since 2012 all of these states have lost millions of income dollars through the outmigration of taxpayers.

And where did those taxpayers go?  Mainly to Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and South Carolina.  The average net migration of AGI for all 50 states was just under $30 million, while the average outmigration of dollars for the bottom five was $11.5 billion. California alone lost over $24 billion. 

To learn more about where your state ranks in net migration of AGI, taxpayers, and exemptions, go to Data-Z.org.    READ MORE

In 2023 the average state GDP per capita ranged from $214,285 in Washington. D.C., to a low of $30,105 in Mississippi, with a 50-state average of $64,760.  The chart below leaves out D.C. because it is such an outlier.  New York has the second highest per capita GDP while West Virginia has the second lowest.  Since 2014 per capita GDP in the states has increased an average of 13 percent.  Check out your state on Data-Z.org.    READ MORE

"State Government Spending as Percent of GDP" shows the percentage of a state's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that comprises a state government's total spending. This figure is useful for comparison of state spending levels, although each state faces unique economic circumstances.  For 2022 the states with the lowest percentage were Georgia, Texas, Florida, Nebraska and Colorado.  Three of these states, Florida, Nebraska and Colorado also have Taxpayer Surpluses in TIA's Financial State of the States.  READ MORE