Gov’t Spending in NC Nearly $35,000 for Each Family of Four | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This post, by Brian Balfour, was originally published in the government spending section of Civitas's online edition.

    As Gov. Cooper prepares to release his state budget proposal, its a good time to be reminded of a couple basic numbers:

• North Carolina spends about $21 billion in state tax dollars every year, with total state spending reaching around $52 billion once federal spending and other income sources are counted.

    But that's not all, because local governments across NC spend billions of dollars as well. The latest US Census estimate says total government spending (federal pass-throughs, state and local spending) comes to $87.5 billion this year.

    With a population of about 10.1 million people, that works out to more than $8,600 in government expenditures for every man, woman and child in the state. For a family of four, that comes to nearly $35,000.

    And this doesn't count the billions of dollars in federal programs sent directly to NC recipients.