General Fund Analysis
General Fund Analysis
The fundamental legislative intent of COMMONWEALTH DATAPOINT was to provide taxpayers with information on where the Commonwealth spent their money. One of the first questions, is always, how much of the money we sent to Richmond comes back to our locality.
The screens that follow are our first attempt to begin to answer that question. We have started with the General Fund, since the funding comes from individual income taxes, sales taxes, and other revenues, and we have included Lottery.
The General Fund and Lottery are about half the money the Commonwealth spends in a year. And covers the greatest number of programs and activities the state supports either as a direct cost in a College or University or as money sent to support the local school district.
As with any first attempt, we found that we cannot allocate all state agency spending directly to a specific locality and have shown these agencies and amounts as UNALLOCATED at the bottom of the table. Also, we will need over time to develop some formula to allocate many of the revenues collected by the Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth knows how much money it collects for an individual's income tax withholding during the year, but it is not until the taxpayer files their returns do we know the actual collection. This delay of information is something we will work on in the future.
Other future developments with include non-general funds such as Transportation and other special collections and activities. We are always interested in your comments, please review the screens that follow and provide us your input.
How much of the Commonwealth General Fund goes back to the area from which it comes? General Funds come from individual income taxes, sales taxes, lottery fund and other revenues. The information we have provided shows the amount the Commonwealth spends of this amount in each locality for the fiscal year. Please click on the following fiscal year link to examine the data.
Thanks,
Walter J. Kucharski
Auditor of Public Accounts
