OCR Text |
Show Government Cos is Average Family $6,550 in 1970 Total expenditures fur a!! governnii nt.il LiniLs ;icru:;s th. nation I ; i s L year were riiai to $1,6:13 per capita. Thus governmental operations cost the average family of four poisons approximately cj, 55o in fiscal 1970. These facts were brought out in an analysis of government govern-ment finance in the United States during 1970 prepared by Utah Foundation, the private pri-vate tax reseaah organization. organiza-tion. According to the Foundation Founda-tion stiidv, government units throughout the United States (Federal, slate, and local) spent $275 billion last year lor general purposes. In addition ad-dition to these general expenditures, ex-penditures, another $58 billion was expended for social security sec-urity and medicare, unemployment unem-ployment benefits, railroad retirement, government employee em-ployee retirement benefits, and other items financed from special insurance trust, funds. Altogether, total spc-nriin? by all governmental units ir. tlie U. S. ;it year amount-d to S.Tj.'J billion.. This was equal t about 34 percent o! the gross natl-nd product in 1070. Approximately S135 biilion, or 56 pe rcent, of total government gov-ernment spending last year involved direct expenditures by the Federal Government and $118 billion, or 41 per cent consisted of amounts expended expend-ed by stale and local units. Part of the state and local spending total, however, was made up of aid received from the Federal Government. When government spending is considered in terms of the level of government which originally raised the money, total Federal spending would equal $208 billion, or C3 per cent of the expenditure total, and the state and local share would equal $125 billion, of 37 per cent of the total amount expended. Foundation analysts nots that national defense continues continu-es to be the most costly activity ac-tivity of government. During Dur-ing 1970 fiscal year, expenditures expendi-tures for national defense and international relations (including (in-cluding space research) totaled to-taled $87.9 billion, or 32 per cent of all expenditures for general purposes. This percentage per-centage is down somewhat from the Viet-Nam war peak year of 1967-68 when defense and related - activities ac counted for 37.5 per cent of all general government expenditures. ex-penditures. Education is the second costliest function of government, govern-ment, according to the Foun- dation report. In 1969-70 it accounted for total expenditures expendi-tures of $"-.5.3 billion, which was equal to 20.3 percent of all general government expenditures. ex-penditures. By comparison, educational spending amounted amount-ed to 15.1 percent of general expenditures in I960 and 17.1 percent in 1964-65. Income taxes (both individual indivi-dual and corporate) provided more than one - half of all tax revenue received by governmental gov-ernmental units in the U. S. The Foundation study notes that at one time, the property tax was the leading tax source in the U. S. and supplied sup-plied more than half of all tax revenues. Last year, the property tax raised only about ab-out one eighth of all tax revenue rev-enue in the nation. In addition to the huge increase in-crease in government spending spend-ing and taxes during the past two decades, the Foundation also points out that the period has seen a large growth in the public debt. This increase in indebetedness, has occurred occur-red not only at the Federal level, but also at the state and local levels. At the close of the 1969 - 70 fiscal year, the outstanding debt of all governmental units in the U. S. (Federal, state, and local) lo-cal) amounted to $514 billion. This compares with total indebtedness in-debtedness of $356 billion in 1960 and $281 billion in 1950. |