This post originally appeared at https://www.badgerinstitute.org/justice-gorsuch-we-have-an-update-for-you/

Since his book cited Badger Institute research on federal role in bloated bureaucracy, we update the grim figures

In his new book, “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law,” Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch laments the vast expansion of the federal government into matters once left to the states, and he cites the fact that “in Wisconsin, close to half of the Department of Children and Families’s employees are reportedly paid with federal funds.”

At the state’s Department of Health Services, he notes in another example, a fifth receive their paychecks thanks to federal dollars.

His footnote: none other than the Badger Institute’s “Federal Grant$tanding” book, published in 2018.

We originally pulled that data from Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau analysis of the 2017-2019 budget — which ran from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2019 — and wanted to see how those numbers compare to the situation today.

The answer: The problem is as bad as ever, and not just in those two departments.

Over 70% of employees in the Department of Workforce Development are paid with federal funds today, and exactly half of Department of Public Instruction employees are compensated with federal money, according to LFB documents analyzing the current 2023-25 budget. The Department of Children and Families? 48%.

The amount of federal money flowing through each state department is staggering. Workforce Development alone receives over $460 million. Children and Families receives over $1.7 billion. Health Services receives over $17 billion. Almost 30% of the entire state budget is typically funded with federal money.

Gorsuch rightly points out that federal money often comes with strings attached. As we put it in our book, our national and state governments and bureaucracies overlap and confuse things in ways never envisioned by the Founders.  Federal money is used to coerce states and their residents into compliance.

As we wrote in “Federal Grant$tanding,” “James Madison had an essential vision that the states would retain powers numerous and indefinite. The city named after him, ironically, fundamentally undermines that vision. But it goes much further than that.”

“Federal dollars and influence are undermining local decisions, accountability and innovation, driving up costs for taxpayers, creating confusing and nonsensical bureaucratic overlap, transferring authority to unelected bureaucrats instead of elected officials who are accountable to the people, and fostering a culture of unrealistic and illogical expectations.”

A reassertion of true federalism — the devolution of national control and the re-establishment of state interests and individual liberties — is the only solution.

Mike Nichols is the President of the Badger Institute, Mark Lisheron its Managing Editor, Wyatt Eichholz its Policy and Legislative Associate.

Any use or reproduction of Badger Institute articles or photographs requires prior written permission. To request permission to post articles on a website or print copies for distribution, contact Badger Institute President Mike Nichols at mike@badgerinstitute.org or 262-389-8239.

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