翻译In the first half of the Great Depression, state and local receipts and expenditures increased relative to the overall economy, as shown on Chart 2. However, most of that reversed in the second half of the 1930s.
The year 1940 was notable because it was the last time state and local government revenues and outlays were roughly on a par with those of the federal government.
State and local governments’ share of the economy shrank during World War II, probably because so much of the nation’s output was conscripted by the federal government for the war effort.
After World War II, state and local government revenues and outlays began a long climb. By 1975, state and local government receipts were 12.9 percent of GDP (3.6 percentage points higher than in 1940) and expenditures were 14.1 percent of GDP (4.7 percentage points higher than in 1940).
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, during the Johnson and Nixon Administrations, federal grants-in-aid became a more important funding source for states and localities. This can be seen in Chart 2 by the rise in the line representing federal grants-in-aid and by the widening of the gap between state and local government receipts with and without that aid. On the expenditures side, the outpouring of federal money has increased the federal government’s influence and induced state and local governments to spend more than otherwise.
Since 1975, state and local government receipts have moved up and then down without a clear trend; they were 13.0 percent of GDP in 2012, which is essentially the same as in 1975. (If one excludes federal grants-in-aid and looks at what states and localities collect themselves, receipts have been close to flat since 1970.) State and local expenditures, however, have been trending up, although much more slowly than before. Expenditures peaked in 2009 at 16.4 percent of GDP, with some of that bankrolled by a large influx of federal stimulus spending, and were 14.8 percent of GDP in 2012 (0.7 percentage point higher than in 1975.)
State government receipts and expenditures were once small compared with those of local governments. The NIPA statistics consolidate state and local government finances and do not show the levels individually. However, some Census Bureau surveys report state and local government finances separately. The Census information is used here to augment the NIPA statistics. In 1902, local government revenues and expenditures were approximately five times as large as those of state governments.[16] In 1932, the local-to-state ratio was approximately 3 to 1.[17] In 1970, the local-to-state ratio was about 1 to 1.[18] The Census Bureau reports that local revenues and expenditures were slightly less than those of state governments in 1991-1992.[19] In 2011, the local-to-state ratio was approximately 0.8 to 1.[20] These numbers actually understate the growing influence of state governments over local ones because state transfers to local governments have risen from roughly 5 percent of local revenues in 1902 to roughly 30 percent in 2011.
In summary, between 1930 and today, state and local governments grew relative to the overall economy but not as quickly as the federal government. In 1930, the state and local levels of government dominated in terms of receipts and expenditures, but now the federal level is dominant. There has also been a shift from the local level of government to the state level.