State & local public finance

What state and local governments raise, spend, and owe

The 50 states, the District of Columbia, and roughly 90,000 local governments (counties, municipalities, townships, school districts, and special districts) raised $4.74T and spent $4.30T in fiscal year 2022, on the Census Bureau’s combined state-and-local books. This is the domestic counterpart to the federal balance sheet on the sovereign page: sub-national, tax-and-charge financed, and the origin of the municipal bond market. Combined totals exclude transfers between the two levels, so they are smaller than state and local figures added together.

$4.74T

Total revenue

$4.30T

Total expenditure

$3.16T

Debt outstanding

$2.37T

Taxes

$3.52T

Municipal securities

Data as of FY2022 (Census) and 2026 Q1 (Federal Reserve Z.1)

Anchored to the publishers. Total state and local revenue here is computed from Census Table 1 and equals the Census-published total of 4,737,986,304 thousand dollars ($4.74T), and debt outstanding equals 3,156,057,807 thousand ($3.16T). State and local debt securities and loans reached 3,725,353 million ($3.73T) at 2026 Q1, matching the Federal Reserve Z.1 series (SLGSDODNS) verbatim.

Where the money comes from

Revenue by source, state and local combined, FY2022. Federal aid is the single largest line at $1.26T (27.7% of general revenue), ahead of the property tax and current charges. The property tax (27.4% of all state and local taxes) is almost entirely local, with 96.7% of it collected by local governments, while income and sales taxes are predominantly state levies.

1Federal aid$1.26T
2Property tax$649.03B
3Current charges$635.34B
4Individual income tax$600.62B
5General sales tax$557.18B
6Miscellaneous$277.87B
7Selective sales tax$232.07B
8Insurance trust$213.14B
9Utility revenue$185.82B
10Corporate income tax$159.66B
11Other taxes$134.32B
12Motor vehicle license$34.81B
13Liquor stores$13.39B

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Census of Governments, State and Local Government Finances Combined state and local, duplicative intergovernmental transactions excluded. Methodology

Where it goes

Direct general expenditure by function, FY2022. Education is the largest single function at $1.26T (29.4% of total expenditure), ahead of public welfare ($970.95B) and hospitals ($261.24B). Utility, liquor-store, and insurance-trust spending fall outside this general-expenditure breakdown.

1Education$1.26T
2Public welfare$970.95B
3Hospitals$261.24B
4Highways$210.64B
5Health$154.26B
6Police$139.92B
7Interest on debt$104.29B
8Correction$91.30B
9Housing & community$73.96B
10Financial administration$70.74B
11Sewerage$70.17B
12Fire protection$64.03B
13Parks & recreation$50.84B
14Natural resources$40.80B
15Solid waste$29.82B

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Census of Governments, State and Local Government Finances Direct general expenditure; utility, liquor-store, and insurance-trust spending shown separately in the source. Methodology

Debt outstanding

State and local debt outstanding was $3.16T at the end of FY2022, 98.7% of it long-term. This debt is the municipal bond market. The Federal Reserve Z.1 accounts track the same sector’s credit-market liabilities quarterly and more currently, reaching $3.73T by 2026 Q1 (below). The narrower municipal securities line stood at $3.52T at its latest annual reading (2025).

Source: Federal Reserve Board, Financial Accounts (Z.1), via FRED Federal Reserve Z.1 SLGSDODNS, quarterly, seasonally adjusted; 1945 Q4 to 2026 Q1. Methodology

$3.12T

Long-term debt

$39.92B

Short-term debt

$396.51B

Long-term issued

$330.87B

Long-term retired

State versus local

Before netting the transfers between them, state governments took in $3.08T and local governments $2.35T in FY2022. Part of the state total is then paid to localities as aid, chiefly for schools, which is why the two levels cannot simply be added: the combined column used everywhere above removes those transfers.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Census of Governments, State and Local Government Finances Methodology