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| Subject: Analysis: State spending in Ohio rises 6 times faster than population growth over past 30 years Tue Aug 27, 2019 1:40 am | |
| Among the U.S. states, Ohio is the sixth-most populated with more than 11.6 million people, many of them located in major population centers like Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus. But the rate of population growth in the Buckeye State has been largely stagnant for decades, lagging far behind that seen by the nation as a whole. When it comes to state government spending, however, it's another story entirely. And when the spending increases of the past 30 years are juxtaposed with the negligible population growth over the same time period, the contrast can be jarring.
Inflation-adjusted spending for the general revenue fund has risen six times faster than the state's population growth within the past three decades, according to an analysis conducted by The Center Square. After being adjusted for inflation, the general revenue spending in the state has gone up from nearly $22 billion in Fiscal Year 1989 to about $32.25 billion in Fiscal Year 2018. This is an increase of nearly 46.7 percent. Population in the state has risen from about 10.8 million people to about 11.7 million over the same timespan, an increase of less than 8 percent. "Government spending in the state has generally exceeded combined growth in population and inflation, with the most recent budget approved this summer continuing this trend," Andrew Kidd, an economist for the Buckeye Institute, told The Center Square. The Buckeye Institute is an Ohio-based, free-market think tank. "Although the state has experienced budget surpluses recently due to good economic times," Kidd said, "overspending can risk putting the state in a difficult situation where policymakers would need to make challenging cuts or increase taxes, which would hurt Ohio's families and businesses."
https://www.kpvi.com/news/national_news/analysis-state-spending-in-ohio-rises-times-faster-than-population/article_76e720b6-d059-59f7-aa4f-708ed553b105.html |
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