| Tracking of Federal Funds |
|
Members of Congress from the Northeast-Midwest region created the Northeast-Midwest Congressional and Senate Coalitions in order to work together on policies that would target federal resources and programs to address the economic challenges facing the region. Their 18 states send more tax dollars to the federal government than any other region of the country, yet receive less in terms of the federal government’s spending. The Northeast-Midwest Institute was established to research and provide recommendations on public policy initiatives that would address resources to the challenges in the region. The states in the Northeast-Midwest can ill afford to continue subsidizing economic vitality in other regions of the country when so many of their cities and towns are struggling with a legacy of aging infrastructure, loss of manufacturing capability, population loss, and the need to address environmental remediation. In order to assess progress toward a more equitable distribution of federal funds, the Northeast-Midwest Institute tracks the funding levels of a broad array of programs critical to the region and analyzes their impact. The Institute:
Appropriations TrackingKey Regional Appropriations(figures in millions of dollars) The FY2011-2012 funding levels presented here reflect budget authority, which is the Congressionally-approved amount that federal agencies are permitted to spend.
The Institute compiles information on federal program funding levels to provide members of Congress information on programs of particular importance to the region. This information includes historical levels of federal funding received by states in the Northeast and Midwest so that public officials can track progress in increasing the flow of federal funds to their states, provides information on allocation formulas used to target the funds that determine the amount of funding states or locales receive, and provides information on programs from which states in the region do not currently receive federal funding. The Northeast-Midwest Congressional and Senate Coalitions actively pursue opportunities to increase the appropriations of targeted programs important to the region. Similarly, they seek to establish federal programs responsive to the economic and social challenges facing the region and its residents. Federal Spending in the Northeast-Midwest RegionThe Northeast-Midwest Institute and the Northeast-Midwest Congressional and Senate Coalitions have tracked and analyzed federal spending and taxation patterns since their founding in the mid-1970s. Most states in the Northeast and Midwest contribute more in taxes to the federal government than they receive back in federal spending, which means the Northeast-Midwest region subsidizes federal spending in the rest of the country. The factors driving the Northeast-Midwest's low return on each federal tax dollar vary within the region. In the Northeast as a whole, higher than average per capita taxation yields a low return on each federal tax dollar despite relatively high levels of federal spending. In the Midwest, the low return on each federal tax dollar stems from relatively low levels of federal spending. Flow of Federal Funds to States Archives
|
