In the earliest days of the second Trump administration, Elon Musk vowed to take a chainsaw to the federal bureaucracy and slash $2 trillion in government spending. That didn’t happen. In fact, the U.S. government spent $6.6 trillion in the fiscal year spanning Oct. 2024 through the end of August — $376 billion more than the previous year, according to available Treasury Department data. And some states are much more dependent on federal cash than others.
WalletHub compiled a list of the most and least federally dependent states. It analyzed data to find both the state government’s and the state residents’ federal dependency, looking at the return on taxes paid to the federal government, share of federal jobs, and federal funding as a share of state revenue.
“Regardless of whether the distribution of federal funds is fair or not, living in one of the most federally dependent states can be beneficial for residents,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said. “For every dollar residents of the top states pay in taxes, they get several dollars back in federal funding, which often leads to higher-quality infrastructure, education, public health and more.”
Continue reading to see which states are the most — and least — dependent.
