How Dependent Is Connecticut On The Federal Government?

Editor’s note: We published this story earlier in the week, but here it is again in case you missed it.

By Marc Torrence (Patch National Staff)

How dependent is Connecticut on the federal government compared to other states?

It’s in the bottom 10 when it comes to dependency on the federal government, according to a new study.

WalletHub conducted a study to answer that question across the county. It used four factors to come up with a ranking of all 50 states:

• Return on Taxes Paid to the Federal Government
• Federal Funding as a Percentage of State Revenue
• Number of Federal Employees per 1,000 Residents
• Number of Civilian Non-Defense Federal Employees per 1,000 Residents

Connecticut came in at No. 7, with No. 1 being the least dependent and No. 50 being the most. Massachusetts was right behind Connecticut at No. 8. New York was No. 20.

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You can see the full results in the map below:

The five least-dependent states were New Jersey, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota and Kansas. The most dependent were Montana, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and New Mexico.

In Connecticut, federal funding accounts for just 23.43 percent of state revenue, which makes the state the fourth least dependent in that category. By way of comparison, federal funding accounts for 43.39 percent of state revenue in New York, which is more than any other state except Vermont.

Connecticut also ranks low for the number of federal employees per 1,000 residents at just 4.42 or eighth least.

One irony pointed out by WalletHub was the discrepancy in how states voted vs. how reliant they were on the federal government.

States that voted Republican in the 2012 election, whose party preaches less dependence on the government, had an average rank of 33.2. States that tend to vote Democrat had an average rank of 18.3.

See the full list, methodology and analysis at WalletHub.

Source: WalletHub