FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Pasco, WA — The Repatriate Washington Policy Research Institute today released a new interactive presentation examining Washington State’s federal fiscal balance for fiscal years 2018–2024. The dashboard, titled Washington Federal Fiscal Balance 2018-2024: Provisional Mixed Measures, provides transparent, year-by-year estimates of federal dollars flowing into the state versus federal tax collections leaving it.
Key Findings
In FY2024:
Identified federal inflows into Washington totaled $112.28 billion
IRS net collections reached $152.20 billion
Net balance: –$39.92 billion
Washington recorded net positive balances only during the peak pandemic years of 2020 (+$7.48 billion) and 2021 (+$21.91 billion). Every other year in the series showed a net outflow, with the deficit widening sharply after 2021.
Seven-Year Summary
What’s Inside the Inflows (FY2024)
The dashboard’s stacked-inflows view breaks down the $112.28 billion in identified federal dollars:
Social Security — $35.08B
Medicaid — $12.58B
Assistance obligations — $11.84B
DoD procurement — $8.73B
Medicare A/B — $7.25B
Medicare C — $6.97B
VA expenditures — $6.93B
Civilian federal wages — $6.37B
Military wages — $4.93B
DOE procurement — $4.02B
Other non-VA procurement — $2.22B
Military retirement (modeled) — $2.39B
Additional assistance — $1.36B
Medicare D — $1.48B
CHIP — $0.13B
About the Project
The presentation is part of the Washington County Federal Fiscal Balance Project (WCFFBP), an open and reproducible research effort to measure federal inflows and outflows at the state level and, ultimately, for each of Washington’s 39 counties.
The Institute emphasizes that these figures are qualified provisional mixed measures and not a certified cash-flow ledger. Documented limitations include mixed source timing, annualized Social Security snapshots, partial FY2024 Medicare Part C data, the use of obligations rather than outlays in some assistance categories, and other technical constraints. A final ledger remains under development.
“These provisional measures make the scale of Washington’s net contribution to the federal government visible and auditable,” said a spokesperson for the Institute. “Our aim is measurement first. The data are open, the methodology is documented, and independent researchers can examine every step.”
Explore the Data
Interactive Dashboard
https://repatriatewa.github.io/washington-county-federal-fiscal-balance/presentations/wcffbp-246d/
Full Research Repository
https://github.com/RepatriateWA/washington-county-federal-fiscal-balance
The Institute will continue refining the statewide series and advancing the long-term goal of producing county-level federal fiscal balances for all 39 Washington counties.
Media Contact
William Cavanagh
Executive Director
cavanaugh@repatriatewa.org
Media Requests
Randall Aamot
aamot@repatriatewa.org
Repatriate Washington Policy Research Institute