State and Local Governments--Indebtedness statistics

[In billions of dollars (335.6 represents $335,600,000,000), except as indicated. For fiscal year ending in year shown; see text, this section . Except for 1987, local government amounts are estimates subject to sampling variation; see Appendix III and source. For definition of debt, see below table]


				Debt outstanding					LONG TERM

			Per		Long term		Short-	Net	Debt	Debt
Item	Total	Resident	capita ¹				term	long-	issued	retired
		pop	(dol.)	Local	Utilities	All other		term
				schools ²

1980: Total	335.6	226.542	1,481	32.3	55.2	235.0	13.1	262.9	42.4	17.4
State	122.0	225.904	540	3.8	4.6	111.5	2.1	79.8	16.4	5.7
Local	213.6	226.542	943	28.5	50.6	123.5	11.0	183.1	25.9	11.7
1985: Total	568.6	237.924	2,390	43.8	90.8	414.5	19.6	430.5	101.2	43.5
State	211.9	237.289	893	6.7	8.6	193.8	2.8	110.4	41.7	16.4
Local	356.7	237.924	1,499	37.1	82.2	220.6	16.8	320.1	59.5	27.2
1986: Total	658.9	240.133	2,744	43.0	104.8	492.8	18.3	458.9	162.0	74.4
State	247.7	239.495	1,034	4.1	10.0	232.0	1.6	129.1	64.0	26.4
Local	411.2	240.133	1,712	38.9	94.9	260.6	16.7	329.8	98.1	48.0
1987: Total	727.1	242.289	3,001	49.2	120.5	541.5	15.9	518.3	134.4	83.0
State	265.7	241.652	1,099	7.9	11.9	244.1	1.6	143.4	50.2	33.3
Local	461.5	242.289	1,905	41.3	108.6	297.3	14.3	375.0	84.1	49.8
1988: Total	755.0	244.499	3,088	47.5	124.9	566.9	15.7	425.4	89.7	63.8
State	276.8	243.869	1,135	3.3	12.2	260.0	1.3	108.8	36.4	26.1
Local	478.2	244.499	1,956	44.2	112.7	306.9	14.4	316.5	53.3	37.6
1989: Total	798.4	246.814	3,235	52.7	127.5	600.2	18.0	445.5	102.2	63.8
State	295.5	246.195	1,200	3.7	12.2	277.4	2.3	118.2	42.0	26.9
Local	502.9	246.814	2,037	49.0	115.3	322.8	15.7	327.2	60.2	36.8
1990: Total	860.6	248.765	3,459	60.4	134.8	646.1	19.3	477.0	108.5	64.8
State	318.3	248.159	1,282	4.4	12.3	298.8	2.8	125.5	43.5	22.9
Local	542.3	248.765	2,180	56.0	122.4	347.4	16.5	351.5	65.0	42.0
1991: Total	915.8	252.124	3,632	71.0	141.2	681.8	21.7	509.9	118.1	65.7
State	345.6	251.531	1,374	5.9	12.5	323.7	3.4	139.9	50.5	25.4
Local	570.2	252.124	2,261	65.1	128.7	358.1	18.3	369.9	67.6	40.3
1992: Total	970.5	255.002	3,806	78.4	150.4	720.4	21.3	561.6	155.1	99.2
State	372.3	254.417	1,463	7.6	13.7	348.1	2.9	125.4	70.2	45.0
Local	598.1	255.002	2,345	70.9	136.7	373.1	18.4	409.1	85.0	54.3
1993: Total	1,016.2	257.746	3,943	89.2	157.6	746.8	22.6	617.1	195.0	146.3
State	389.7	257.169	1,515	9.4	14.8	361.7	3.9	176.9	77.1	60.7
Local	628.0	257.746	2,437	79.8	142.7	385.2	18.9	440.2	118.4	86.3
1994: Total	1,074.7	260.289	4,129	143.5	164.9	438.0	26.7	672.8	207.8	166.6
State	411.0	259.723	1,582	10.4	16.7	162.0	4.9	200.8	78.5	61.3
Local	663.7	260.289	2,550	86.2	148.2	276.0	21.8	472.0	129.3	105.3
1995: Total	1,115.3	262.765	4,244	118.2	163.9	756.0	27.0	835.3	129.3	95.1
State	427.2	262.212	1,629	11.3	17.0	345.0	6.1	205.3	52.6	37.5
Local	688.1	262.765	2,619	107.0	146.9	411.0	20.9	629.9	76.8	57.6
1996: Total	1,169.7	265.190	4,411	130.7	170.3	868.8	24.0	890.2	141.1	106.5
State	452.4	264.650	1,709	11.2	16.3	424.9	5.8	224.4	60.2	42.4
Local	717.3	265.190	2,705	119.5	154.0	443.8	18.2	665.7	80.9	64.1


¹1980 and 1990 based on enumerated resident population as of April 1;
other years based on estimated resident population as of July 1; see table 2.
²Includes debt for education activities other than higher education.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census; "Government Finances", Series GF No.5, annual 1980-92; thereafter
Estimates, annual; thereafter,
(accessed 21 May 1999).

http://www.census.gov/govs/www/estimate.html

****************************************************************************************
Public debt comprises all interest-bearing short-term credit
obligations and all long-term credit obligations incurred in the
name of the government and all its dependent agencies, whether
backed by the government's full faith and credit or nonguar-
anteed. It includes tax-exempt as well as taxable public debt.

The Census Bureau concept of public debt is an inclusive one,
covering judgments, mortgages, "revenue" and "earning" bonds, and
special assessment obligations as well as the more traditional
general obligation bonds, notes, and interest-bearing short-term
warrants. It includes not only public debt for public improve-
ments (roads, sewers, airports, etc.) but also public debt issued
for the direct benefit of the private sector (industrial
development, mortgage revenue, pollution control abatement,
etc.). Indeed, the latter category has grown to become the
largest type of government debt today. (See Section 9.3 for a
more detailed discussion of this topic.)

This definition covers obligations of all agencies, boards,
commissions, or other organizations categorized as dependent on
the government concerned (see Chapter 3). For instance, govern-
ment business-type activities, particularly utilities, have debt
that is payable exclusively from earnings of the facilities which
the debt financed. Many special assessment obligations are paid
completely from levies on the property benefitting from such
improvements, without recourse to the general credit of the
government. State authorities, educational institutions, and
other agencies frequently have debt secured only by their own
revenues, other dedicated receipts, or agency properties. These
types of obligations are issued widely by dependent agencies of a
government, such as special improvement districts of city
corporations, state dormitory authorities, or housing finance
agencies. Often, the parent government does not even maintain
central accounts on such debt. Nonetheless, all these examples
are types of credit obligations reported in Census Bureau
statistics on public debt.

The Bureau assigns public debt, as defined above, to the
government in whose name it is incurred, regardless of the
location of responsibility for debt service. In the case of
public debt for private purposes, this generally represents the
government whose tax-exempt status was used to issued such debt.
State obligations for which interest and principal payments are
financed by local government payments to the state are treated as
state debt. Similarly, debt of an agency classified as dependent
on a local government is treated as local government debt.


9.11 Liabilities Outside Census Bureau Definition


This concept of public debt, however, is not so broad that it
covers every liability listed on the balance sheets or elsewhere
in government finance reports. The following types of liabil-
ities are excluded from Census Bureau statistics:

- Noninterest-bearing short-term obligations, such as accounts
payable, noninterest-bearing warrants, and the like. Note,
however, that noninterest-bearing long-term obligations having
a formal debt instrument (such as a fixed repayment schedule)
are classified as government debt.

- Interfund advances, loans, or other obligations between
accounting funds of the same government (see Section 6.6 for a
discussion of intragovernmental transactions). As a practical
matter, these debt statistics do include formal debt
instruments of a government that are held as investments by
its own agencies or fund.

- Amounts held (and owned) by a government in a trust or agency
capacity on behalf of others (see Section 6.5).

- Contingent loans and advances from other governments, which
are classed as intergovernmental transactions (see Section
6.4).

- Rights of individuals to benefits from retirement funds or
other social insurance trust systems.

- Unfunded liabilities of retirement systems, unpaid annual or
sick leave, or other obligations without a formal debt
instrument specifying terms, length, interest rate, etc.

- Leases, including both capital and operating leases (see
Section 9.63).

- Loan guarantees and nonguaranteed obligations of the Federal
Government.

Chart 9-A provides a sample of the most common types of govern-
ment liabilities that are included and excluded from this
definition of public debt.


9.12 Major Classification Changes with Fiscal Year 1987-88 Data


Because of the growing complexity of government debt financing
and the increasing difficulty in collecting statistics regarding
it, the Census Bureau instituted major classification changes to
this area, effective with fiscal year 1987-88 data. The major
effects of the changes were to simplify the classification scheme
and to identify more completely public debt for private purposes.

The classification changes can be summarized as follows:

- The functional detail on long-term debt issued, retired, and
outstanding was reduced from 19 to eight categories, half of
which are for utilities. The disposition of the previous
function codes is shown in the chart below:

Old New
Code Purpose Code

Utility Debt1:

A Water Supply Systems* A
B Electric Power Systems* B
C Natural Gas Supply Systems* C
D Public Mass Transit Systems* D

General Debt2:

E Air Transportation X
F Elementary and Secondary Education* F
G Institutions of Higher Education G
H Other Education, N.E.C.# G
J Hospitals# X
K Highways-Regular X
L -Toll X
M Housing and Community Development# X
N Parks and Recreation X
Old New
Code Purpose Code

General Debt (continued)1:

P Sewerage X R Veterans' Bonuses X S Water Transport and Terminals X T Industrial Development and Pollution Control T W Mortgage Revenue T X General Debt, N.E.C. X

* Indicates no change to category. # Indicates that some debt previously classified in this code is included in the new Public Debt for Private Purposes category.

- A new category, Public Debt for Private Purposes (code T), was created as a combination of industrial development and pollution control (old T code) and mortgage revenue (old W code) plus debt that was recorded in other functions (e.g., from the education debt categories, debt for student education loans and from hospital debt category, debt to finance private hospital construction).

- Two functional categories that had been used previously to classify state government full-faith and credit long-term debt, General Obligation Bonds and Debt Initially Payable from Specified Nontax Revenue, were eliminated. 9.2 Four-Way Classification of Public Debt For Census Bureau statistics, public debt is classified into four categories using a 3-digit coding scheme. Except for the first category, all apply solely to long-term debt. These categories are defined in detail in the description sheets at the end of this chapter. Below is a summary of each:

- By length of term. Debt is classified as being either short-term or long-term. Note that for short-term debt, only the amounts outstanding at the beginning and end of the fiscal year are reported. Unlike long-term debt data, no effort is made to collect the entire amount of short-term debt sold and paid off during the fiscal year or to categorize short-term debt by function.

#��! one of three types: issued during the year, retired during the year, or outstanding at the end of the government's fiscal year. Note that the first two record debt activity over a period of time while the last one measures debt at a specific point. Also, the end of fiscal year refers to the government's own fiscal year, not the Census Bureau reporting period.

-BY CHARACTER OF LONG-TERM DEBT. LONG-TERM DEBT IS CLASSIFIED as either backed by the full-faith and credit of the govern- ment or as nonguaranteed. For smaller local governments, long-term debt issued and retired is not classed in either category but is categorized as "unspecified in character."

-BY PURPOSE OF LONG-TERM DEBT. LONG-TERM DEBT IS CLASSIFIED according to the purpose, or function, intended to be financed from its proceeds. There are currently eight functional categories for debt:

-UTILITY DEBT1: WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS Electric Power Systems Natural Gas Supply Systems Public Mass Transit Systems

- General Debt: Elementary and Secondary Education Higher and Other Education Public Debt for Private Purposes All Other Debt, N.E.C.2

http://www.allcountries.org/uscensus/507_state_and_local_governments_indebtedness.html

These tables are based on figures supplied by the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce and are subject to revision by the Census Bureau.

Copyright © 2006 Photius Coutsoukis and Information Technology Associates, all rights reserved.