New website: Just how dependent is New Mexico on federal spending

Which state gets the most money from the heavily indebted federal government? We know New Mexico is high on the list, but the results truly depend on how the data are compiled. New Mexico has large swaths of federal land, military installations, and national labs, but it also has massive welfare programs (like Medicare and SNAP) not to mention Medicare and Social Security and large numbers of federal bureaucrats of all kinds.

And then you need to figure out whether you want per capita numbers, as a percentage of income, or even as a percentage of personal spending. A new “State Dependency Index” from our friends at the Pioneer Institute (our sister think tank based in Massachusetts) allows you to slice and dice the numbers to get a handle on the numbers.

In terms of the map below, New Mexico is number 1 in intergovernmental transfers (like Medicaid) as a percentage of personal incomes in NM (which are very low by US standards). Click here or on the image below and enjoy.