Follow the money.
Check the record.

Explore the $3.162 trillion Census general-expenditure total, the largest state ledgers, and the accounting limits behind a fair 50-state comparison.

Follow transfers between governments before adding spending totals. Use a flow worksheet to separate funding sources from final expenditure.

Distinguish annual pension contributions, benefit payments, pension expense and net pension liability. Use a worksheet to compare dates and measures.

Compare school spending using matching expenditure definitions, enrollment and years. Separate current operations, capital costs and funding sources.

Understand Medicaid totals, matching funds and managed care payments. Use a worksheet to compare the same period, funding share and spending scope.

Read audit scope, evidence, findings and corrective actions. Use a finding worksheet to distinguish control weaknesses, improper payments and fraud.

Separate proposed, enacted, revised and actual state spending. Use a comparison worksheet to match funds, fiscal periods and accounting measures.

A reusable evidence worksheet connecting authority, awards, payments, delivered outputs and outcomes without turning missing records into fraud claims.

Texas’s $321.3 billion budget spans two years. California’s $297.9 billion agreement spans one. Use the period calculator before comparing them.

Reproduce Treasury’s FY2025 deficit from the correct year-to-date row, and learn which spending totals can be compared.