Contents

• Introduction
  
  1. Current Dollars
     
  2. Fiscal Years
     
  3. Coverage
     
  4. Limitations of Data
     
  5. Sources of Data and Statistical Reliability
     
• File Descriptions
  
  1. Summary Tables
  2. Ranking Table
  3. Lottery Table
  4. Summary Table Spreadsheet
  5. Text File -Rectangular Layout
  6. Public Use File
                 • Government IDs
                 • Item Codes
                 • Origin Code
                 • Reasons for Redesign

The United States Census Bureau conducts an Annual Survey of Government Finances, as authorized by law under Title 13, United States Code, Section 182. The survey coverage includes all state and local governments in the United States. The survey content includes the entire range of government finance activities -- revenue, expenditure, debt, and assets.

The tables and files contained here provide a comprehensive summary of the annual survey findings for state governments, as well as data for individual states. The tables contain detail of revenue by type, expenditure by object and function, indebtedness by term, and assets by purpose. To view the most common aggregate finance categories that are used in tables and special tabulations, see Chapter 13 of the Government Finance and Employment Classification Manual, entitled Methodology for Summary Tabulations

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Current Dollars

The statistics in these files are in terms of current dollar amounts. They have not been adjusted for price or wage level changes occurring through the years.

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Fiscal Years

The statistics relate to state government fiscal years that end on June 30 of 2006, except for four states with other ending dates: Alabama and Michigan (September 30, 2006), New York (March 31, 2006), and Texas (August 31, 2006).

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Coverage

The state government finance data presented by the Census Bureau may differ from data published by state governments because the Census Bureau may be using a different definition of which organizations are covered under the term, “state government.”

For the purpose of Census Bureau statistics, the term “state government” refers not only to the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of a given state, but it also includes agencies, institutions, commissions, and public authorities that operate separately or somewhat autonomously from the central state government but where the state government maintains administrative or fiscal control over their activities as defined by the Census Bureau.

For further information on the definition and organization of governments:

See chapter 1 of the Government Finance and Employment Classification Manual and

Volume 1, Number 1 [PDF] and Volume 1, Number 2 [PDF] of the 2002 Census of Governments.

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Limitations of Data

Reporting of government finances by the Census Bureau involves presentation of data in terms of uniform categories. Financial items of the same kind are merged. For example, expenditure amounts for a similar purpose are combined, regardless of the number of government funds involved.

The financial data are limited to coverage of state governments and provide no measure of local government finances as such.

Use caution in attempting to draw conclusions from direct comparisons of financial amounts for individual state governments. Some states directly administer activities that elsewhere are undertaken by local governments, with or without state fiscal aid. The share of government sector financial totals contributed by a state government, therefore, differs materially from one state to another.

Financial amounts presented are statistical in nature and do not represent an accounting statement.

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Sources of Data and Statistical Reliability

The statistics in this report were compiled by Census Bureau analysts using financial records of the state governments. In most cases, these records were obtained directly from the state offices responsible for auditing, budgeting, or developing periodic financial information. Many of the sources are part of, or linked to, official consolidated annual financial reports of the states. In some cases, records used represent publicly-available reports, while in other cases they represent underlying detail of such reports. While the records are from state government sources, all responsibility for the measures contained in this report lies with the Bureau of the Census.

State government financial statistics in this report result from a complete canvass of all state government agencies. Consequently, there is no associated measure of sampling error, such as the relative standard error. However, these statistics are subject to nonsampling error. Such error includes inaccuracies in classification, coverage, and processing. Efforts were made at all phases of collection, processing, and tabulation to minimize errors. However, the data are still subject to errors from imputing for missing data, errors from miscoding, and errors in coverage (difficulties in identifying every state agency or unit that should be in the report). Every effort was made to keep such errors to a minimum through care in examining, editing, and tabulating the data.

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There are two types of available data: viewable summary files, and microdata. Each contains state government financial statistics. The types and number of files vary somewhat depending upon the survey year.

Summary Tables

The viewable summary tables contain aggregated summary data for the U.S. and for each state. The summary data include items such as revenue by type, expenditures by function, indebtedness, and cash and security holdings.

Filename is YYXX**ST.html where:
YY=fiscal year; XX=state id; **=state abbreviation; and ST=state

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Ranking Table

No ranking table was produced for 2005 and onward. Ranking tables for previous years should be interpreted with caution.

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Lottery Table

The Lottery table shows income and apportionment of state-administered lottery funds in a spreadsheet format.

Filename is YYlottery.html (where YY represents the last two digits of the fiscal year)

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Summary Table Spreadsheet File

The summary table spreadsheet is an MS Excel spreadsheet format of the above summary tables. There is an entry for each state, as well as a U. S. summary section.

Filename is YYstatess.xls (where YY represents the last two digits of the fiscal year)

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Text File - Rectangular Layout

Production for text files with rectangular layout has been discontinued for the State Finance data as of 2005 and onward.

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Public Use File, ASCII Text Format - by item code and individual government unit

Characteristic	Description
File Type	ASCII
Rec Length	35 characters
Data Fields per Record	1
Record Type	Fixed Length, No Delimiter
File Naming Convention	XXstate35.txt where XX represents the last two digits of the fiscal year of the data represented in the file.

The 35 character record layout is described below.

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Government IDs

The code 09000000000000 is reserved for the District of Columbia.

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Please note: Many codes have changed, owing to the 2005 redesign of the state and local government finance program. Changes to the state components are noted in the table below.

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Origin Code

Reasons for the government finance program redesign:

To comply with new and stricter statistical standards for Federal government sample surveys. Data collection and estimation methodologies had to be changed to comply with the new standards.

To simplify the variable set being collected, with the goals of reducing processing time and redesigning the survey data collection instruments (print and electronic).

To revise the variable set as needed so that it reflects current government sector financial reporting standards and practices.

To update and clarify the definitions, which had been in place since 1988.

For specific details on the changes resulting from the 2005 redesign please see Appendix 1 of the 2006 version of the Government Finance and Employment Classification Manual located on the Internet at: http://www.census.gov/govs/www/classmain.html

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