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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

What's Your 2018 Federal Taxpayer Tab?

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Monday, April 15, 2019   

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Taxes may be as certain as death, and some experts say what also should be certain is knowing exactly how our tax dollars are being spent.

According to new data, the average American paid about $14,000 in federal income taxes in 2018. The National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies crunched the numbers, and the largest chunk of every tax dollar, nearly 30 cents, goes to health care.

Program director Lindsay Koshgarian said military spending encompasses the second biggest share, at 24 cents. However, she noted, less than 5 cents of that goes to troop pay and benefits, while 12 cents goes to military contractors.

"Just for a point of comparison, Lookheed Martin got $48 billion. The entire budget for the Environmental Protection Agency is about $8 billion,” Koshgarian said. “So this is a huge amount of money that is going to federal contractors."

The average taxpayer spent about $100 on K-12 education, which is the same amount on immigration and border patrol, including family separations. About 15 cents of each tax dollar went to federal interest in the national debt; 7 cents to unemployment and labor; and 6 cents to veterans.

Koshgarian said federal crisis response is being funded at the expense of crisis prevention. She explained the average taxpayer paid $179 to deal with the aftermath of natural disasters, such as floods, hurricanes and wildfires.

"And those disasters, we know, are probably exacerbated by climate change,” she said. “And so the $179 is 22 times as much as you contributed to renewable energy, which is only $8 for the average taxpayer."

Individual income taxes account for half of all federal government revenues, which Koshgarian said is a lot more than corporate taxes.

"Back in 2017, individuals were paying $7 for every $1 paid by a corporation, and today that number's gone up to $11,” she said. “Individuals are carrying more of the burden for funding the federal government compared to what they used to."

Corporations paid 47 percent less in income taxes during the first five months of fiscal year 2019, compared with the same period in 2017.

This story was produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.


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