West Virginia and Kentucky have a lot of rural poverty and proportionately greater welfare costs. Finally, everybody recognizes that political cultures differ from state to state and grow year to year - and that these cultures deeply inform spending decisions. For more than a century, Massachusetts and Wisconsin have prided themselves on being home to progressive ideals. Minnesota have become synonymous with clean and innovative government. New Hampshire has a flinty political culture of which its citizens are proud.
Southern states have more poverty and a different set of attitudes for dealing with it.
Readers who then turn to appendix B will discern the scrupulous standards Leonard has observed in assembling his database, most of it from the Bureaus of the Census annual survey of government finances. Leonard's procedure is analogous in many ways to the manipulation you would perform in your head if you were thinking of moving to some far state and were comparing house prices, here and there. What remained would be a benchmark cost of houses against which to choose just how much house to buy this time - a little more or a little less, depending on your personal values. What emerges from Leonard's efforts are a series of benchmarks for talking with real confidence about state spending patterns - not just their levels, but changing trends over time. Already some startling conclusions have jumped out.