FEDERAL TAXES & SPENDING · FY 2024
Kentucky is a
net recipient.
It received more in federal spending than it paid in federal taxes. Residents, businesses and governments combined.
FY 2024 · Source: NYS Comptroller, September 2026Net recipient · FY 2024
more received than paid
$91B received − $44.7B paid = $46.4B net balance
Federal spending and taxes are attributed to the whole state. This annual balance is before any adjustment for federal borrowing.
Rank 8 of 50 by net spending inflow per resident.
$9,744 per resident
$19,861 per resident
$10,117 more received than paid per resident
Where the federal spending goes
| Category | Total | Per resident |
|---|---|---|
| Social Security | $20.9B | $4,550 |
| Medicare | $15.1B | $3,297 |
| Veterans’ benefits | $4.5B | $992 |
| Federal employee benefits | $2B | $437 |
| Other direct payments | $7.7B | $1,674 |
| Grants (including Medicaid) | $22.6B | $4,933 |
| Federal contracts | $12.3B | $2,685 |
| Federal wages and salaries | $5.4B | $1,182 |
| Other identified spending (EIDL loans) | $517.2M | $113 |
Total spending: $91,044,192,773. Display rounding can cause small apparent differences.
What do these figures mean for Kentucky?
What does “net recipient” mean?
“Net recipient” means allocated federal spending is greater than attributed federal taxes. “Net payer” means taxes are greater than spending. We use the unrounded dollar balance, not the displayed ratio, to choose the label. Borrowing is not allocated back to states as an additional tax.
Does Kentucky pay more than it receives?
For FY 2024, attributed federal taxes were below allocated spending by $46,377,857,864. This is an annual balance, not an assessment of a particular household or a permanent label for the state.
What counts as spending received?
Payments include Social Security, Medicare, veterans’ and federal employee benefits, grants, contracts, salaries and other identified spending. Contracts and salaries pay for work. Federal facilities can provide benefits nationwide. “Other identified spending” includes EIDL loans; loan amounts are not ordinary grants.
How are the figures calculated?
Spending per tax dollar = allocated spending ÷ attributed taxes. Net per resident = (spending − taxes) ÷ population. Population: 4,584,046, the source’s July 1, 2024 estimate. FY 2024 runs October 1, 2023 through September 30, 2024.
Sources and limits
All figures use the same NYS Comptroller allocation methodology. Corporate tax attribution is an estimate and does not establish who ultimately bears that tax. The source excludes items such as federal debt interest, overseas spending and revenues not meaningfully assignable to these states. This is not the full federal budget or deficit. Per-resident figures include children and are not average benefit amounts per recipient.
Source report ↗Source workbook ↗Extracted figures and source hash ↗Full methodology ↗
State-by-state federal tax and spending results
Read each state’s figures, rankings, funding breakdown and sources.