ABSTRACT

This chapter describes the most expenditures and trends at each level of government followed by a brief discussion on budgeting and planning for those expenditures. It provides a comprehensive overview of the diversity and complexity of federal, state, and local government public expenditures in the US Public expenditures help educate children, help people get to and from work, and provide medical treatment to the elderly and poor, to name just a few things. Several economic issues are involved in the allocation of public expenditures in our federal fiscal system. Richard Musgrave described essentially three roles for government: allocation, stabilization, and distribution. The core concept of devolution involves turning back federal domestic programs to state and local governments with an emphasis on the rearrangement rather than the reform or diminution of public authority. In the 1990s, legislation passed to expand state discretion over transportation expenditures, drinking water standards, and highway safety.