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Indicator 3: Adequacy of Safeguards for Public Funds

Measure b: Price of Government: spending v. personal income growth

Description:

State Government Spending
as a Percent of Personal Income

Statewide turnover in the first half of FY08 was slightly above the same time period in FY07.

State expenditures as a percent of total state personal income are projected to fall to 5.9 percent in the current biennium, about the same as FY 2000 and FY 2005, the lowest rates of spending since 1984.

This measure tracks state General Fund spending and General Fund plus "near General Fund spending as a percent of state personal income. Personal income data are based on estimates from the Federal Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis. The estimates reflect wages, self employment income, interest, dividends, rent, transfer payments and other miscellaneous sources of income for all Washingon residents. The rate reflects spending from the state general fund and several “near general fund” accounts including Public Safety and Education, Equal Justice, Violence Reduction and Drug Enforcement, Education Legacy Trust, Student Achievement, Pension Funding Stabilization, Health Services, and Water Quality accounts. Adjustments were made to eliminate the “double-count” of expenditures in cases where dollars were spent first from the general fund into a near general fund account and then later spent from that account (the second occurrence of the expenditure was eliminated in the calculation of these numbers).

State Government Spending as a Percent of Personal Income
Total WA Personal Income ($M) General Fund (GFS) GFS + Near GFS
1984
58,761
6.62%
6.62%
1985
63,164
6.56%
6.56%
1986
66,795
6.78%
6.81%
1987
71,194
6.78%
6.81%
1988
76,413
6.44%
6.48%
1989
83,856
6.46%
6.52%
1990
92,671
6.48%
6.55%
1991
100,925
6.76%
6.89%
1992
107,628
6.84%
6.97%
1993
115,041
6.80%
6.94%
1994
120,017
6.53%
6.68%
1995
126,925
6.68%
6.85%
1996
134,251
6.42%
6.66%
1997
144,998
6.28%
6.61%
1998
156,724
5.95%
6.23%
1999
168,873
5.82%
6.11%
2000
183,670
5.56%
5.90%
2001
190,757
5.68%
6.04%
2002
195,257
5.74%
6.26%
2003
199,234
5.69%
6.18%
2004
207,051
5.53%
6.01%
2005
224,554
5.44%
5.86%
2006
234,130
5.71%
6.18%
2007
252,008
5.61%
6.09%
2008
269,604
5.42%
5.90%
2009
281,632
5.41%
5.90%

Sources:

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
OFM Budget Division