The Kansas City Star features a number of stories about how much federal money is spent in urban, rural and suburban areas, compared to the taxes paid. In the chart above, Sumner County is a rural county; Jackson County, Missouri is the home of Kansas City, Missouri; Wyandotte County is the home of Kansas City, Kansas; and Johnson County is the home of the most affluent suburbs of Kansas City. Here is a breakdown of federal spending in Sumner County:
So it’s likely most Sumner voters nodded in agreement last year when Romney called 47 percent of Americans “takers” — so reliant on federal aid they couldn’t be persuaded that runaway federal debt threatens economic freedom.Here's a breakdown of spending on ag programs in Sumner County:
Yet, as Wetta suggests, Sumner County is a taker.
In fiscal year 2010, for example, the U.S. government spent roughly $189 million in Sumner County, almost $7,900 for every man, woman and child who lives here. That’s an estimated 40 to 50 percent more, on average, than each county resident paid in federal taxes.
Much of that spending went for Social Security and Medicare. Almost 16 percent of Sumner County’s residents are older than 65.
But the federal government provides food stamps for more than 2,400 people in the county, on average, every month — costing taxpayers $3.5 million a year. It spent $15.7 million in 2010 to provide Medicaid health care coverage for 3,700 of the county’s poor. It spent $69,284 that year for aviation improvements.
Washington sends subsidies to eight county school districts for teachers — and for lunch. It spent more than $7 million from the 2009 stimulus bill for the county’s schools. It provides housing assistance for those in poverty.
The federal government sends checks big and small. It helps pay for wastewater disposal and economic development in Sumner County. It insures home mortgages. It spent $13,500 in 2010 for small-business loans. It spent $2,266 in burial expenses for Sumner County veterans.
And it sends millions of dollars to Sumner County’s farmers.
Scott Van Allen has farmed 2,300 Sumner County acres for more than three decades, mostly wheat. He’s a conservative, worried Washington is going broke.
But Van Allen takes federal farm subsidies — direct payments and taxpayer-subsidized crop insurance. He’s lost uninsured crops to bad weather and won’t do it again.
From 2007 to 2011, according to a database compiled by the Environmental Working Group, Van Allen has taken more than $200,000 in subsidies from a Washington he doesn’t fully trust.
“It is hypocrisy,” he admits, with a rueful smile.
“If we’re going to bust our butt, and all these people are on welfare that won’t work … and we put in all the hours we do in farming and feeding the country, why not get some of that money?” he asked.That is some serious money. I think our direct payments work out to about $18,000 a year, and our crop insurance subsidy is probably about $35,000 or $40,000. As the stories lay out, rural areas get support for teacher salaries and school lunches, rural development, and the same social programs which benefit big cities. Who pays for it? Mainly the affluent folks in cities and suburbs.
That view helps explain why federal taxpayers sent nearly $3.2 million in direct payments to Sumner County’s farmers in 2010, despite soaring prices and growing land values. That’s a $2,900 annual check, on average, to each of the roughly 1,100 farms in Sumner.
It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s double the average per-person food stamp benefit.
Washington helped Sumner County farmers in other ways that year, too.
It provided $608,541 to cover deficient farm loans, $194,829 for conservation payments, even $45,346 for milk price supports. It provided nearly $1 million to subsidize operating loans that year.
But by far the biggest taxpayer expense — nearly $12.5 million in Sumner County in 2010 — paid for federal crop insurance for Sumner County’s farmers.
The government helps provide crop insurance coverage in two ways — in ways farmers and others can overlook. It subsidizes the premiums farmers pay though their private insurers. Then, if a drought or hailstorm hits, the feds can, under some circumstances, reimburse the private insurers for part of their payouts.
Farmers can participate in the insurance program regardless of income.
It’s expensive. Since 1995, EWG says, Washington has spent more than $131 million in Sumner County to subsidize crop insurance, about $120,000 per farm over 17 years. In a report last week, the Government Accountability Office said national crop insurance costs have doubled, on average, over the past decade — to more than $7 billion a year.
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