On State- and Local-Government Revenues

by Don Boudreaux on March 29, 2011

Carpe Diem’s Mark Perry offers data showing that it’s a myth that state and local governments throughout the U.S. have seen their revenues fall over time.

The dollars in Mark’s data seem to be nominal rather than real. So converting all dollars into 2010 dollars, we find that the $378,312,000,000 raked in by state and local governments in the final quarter of 2010 is 88.2 percent more real revenue than these governments raked in during the first quarter of 1988 (which was, in 2010 dollars, $200,980,000,000).

Some austerity.