California's state and local governments spent $434 billion in 2010, according to a new Census Bureau report, the equivalent of more than 20 percent of the state's economic output.
California's 2010 expenditures were $3.3 billion -- less than 1 percent -- higher than in 2009.
Three-fourths of California's 2010 spending, or $326.4 billion, was raised inside the state -- mostly from income, sales and property taxes but also including fees and utility sales -- while virtually all of the other 25 percent came from the federal government, a substantially higher percentage than in most other states. Nationally, just 19.7 percent of state and local revenues came from the federal government.
The report also revealed that education accounted for $102.5 billion, or 23.6 percent, of California's 2010 spending, roughly two-thirds of which was for the state's six million K-12 students and the other third for higher education. Nationally, state and local governments devoted 27.6 percent of their spending to education.
Welfare services took another $52.2 billion, or 12 percent, of California's spending in 2010, nearly three percentage points lower than the national average.
Despite California's national reputation as a low property tax state, thanks to its landmark property tax limit, Proposition 13, its level of property tax revenues is only slightly lower than the national average. California's $53.9 billion in property tax revenues to local governments and schools in 2010 represented 16.5 percent of total state-local revenues while nationally, the average was 17.7 percent.
Relative property tax burdens in other states ranged from a high of 33.6 percent of revenues in New Hampshire to a low of 7.3 percent in New Mexico.
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