A recent report that ranks states based on their per capita receipt of federal funds shows some surprising results: in contrast to conventional wisdom, not all grants redistribute funding from wealthier to poorer states. In fact, a few wealthy states do quite well on a per capita basis.
May 2011, Volume 29, Issue 10
The Idiosyncrasies of Federal Funding
While No One Was Watching
During the past three years, the federal government has provided states with more than $100 billion in fiscal relief through a temporary increase in federal Medicaid matching rates. The matching rates return to their regular levels on July 1, 2011. Some states will see larger reductions than others, in part because the temporary aid masked trends that were occurring in the underlying rates.
