INDIANAPOLIS – An analysis of the local impacts of the federal budget shows while the amount of federal tax dollars flowing out of Indiana was down a bit last year, it’s still higher than in the past.
Becky Sweger, director of data and technology with the National Priorities Project, says their “State Smart” project found residents and businesses in Indiana paid about $44 billion in federal taxes in 2013.
“They rank about 28th in per-capita federal taxes paid back to the government,” says Sweger. “That’s about $6,700 a person and that is actually less than the year prior.”
And while it’s less than was paid in 2012, the report found Indiana residents paid about 22-percent more in 2013 than they did five years ago. Sweger says most of those dollars were paid by or on behalf of individuals in the form of income taxes, self-employment taxes and payroll taxes.
The analysis also looked at how much is received in Indiana from the federal budget over the course of a year. Sweger says it’s about $56 billion.
“The vast majority of that is federal aid going directly to individuals for programs like Medicare, Social Security, unemployment benefits and food stamps that number comes out to about $5,700 a person,” she says.
The $56 billion received from the federal budget in Indiana also includes federal grants and contracts to business and governments and the salaries of the federal employees in the state.
Mary Kuhlman
