HHS Earmarks - Per Capita

15 August 2006
Congress is considering an appropriations bill for the Department of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS). At this writing, it contains 1,867 earmarks totalling more than a half-billion tax dollars (on average, $268,000).

This article is part of a networked journalism project that seeks to shine light on the earmark process. This contribution is to normalize the data by population -- in other words, what is the per capita amount per state?

California has the largest gross dollar amount ($53.6 million) but ranks 28th ($1.48) per capita. The District of Columbia comes out on top per capita ($9.18), followed by Rhode Island ($4.44).

See the per capita data as a chart; also top 10 states and bottom 10 states.

Review a table of total earmarks per state; see a Flash-generated chart.

State	Per Capita $
DC	9.18
RI	4.44
CT	3.31
ID	3.12
OH	2.92
KY	2.82
NY	2.29
MT	2.27
WI	2.25
NH	2.21
PA	2.19
WV	1.93
MO	1.89
IA	1.88
OK	1.86
MS	1.85
VA	1.77
IN	1.76
NE	1.70
NM	1.68
WY	1.67
FL	1.66
IL	1.63
KS	1.59
ND	1.59
NV	1.54
LA	1.53
CA	1.48
MA	1.48
AL	1.40
MN	1.40
MD	1.38
NC	1.38
MI	1.36
SD	1.31
WA	1.26
NJ	1.23
AZ	1.21
TN	1.18
GA	1.16
TX	1.15
DE	1.13
HI	1.09
UT	1.04
AR	0.99
CO	0.94
OR	0.91
SC	0.87
ME	0.83
AK	0.76
VT	0.65