The rising tension between President Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom is reviving questions about who pays into — and who takes from — the federal government.
In his escalating conflict with President Trump, Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested last week that California had some leverage over the federal government. “We pay over $80 BILLION more in taxes than we get back,” he wrote on X. “Maybe it’s time to cut that off.” His office followed up with a news release titled “Californians pay Trump’s bills.”
In case you missed it, California is the biggest “donor state” in the country — providing around $83 billion more to the federal government than it receives from the federal government — nearly three times as much as the next biggest “donor state.”
Though Mr. Newsom has since said he wouldn’t ask state residents to withhold federal taxes, he said he still felt the need to respond to Mr. Trump’s threats to cut off federal funding to the state and to the deployment of active duty military to Los Angeles amid protests.
The term “donor states” might be relatively obscure, but it captures a dynamic that underlies many national policy debates. And it taps into longstanding philosophical questions about whether it’s fair that some states prop up the country more than others — and whether that’s the right way to look at things in the first place.
Which states are donor states?
Most of the donor states are rich, blue states. Think Massachusetts, New Jersey, Washington and, yes, California.
The “recipient states” are mostly poor states like New Mexico, West Virginia and Mississippi. There are a few exceptions, like Virginia, a blue state whose residents receive, on net, about $12,000 in federal contracts and wages more than they pay in taxes. On average, residents from recipient states receive about $3,000 more than they pay.
| Mass. | $4,800 |
| N.J. | $4,300 |
| Wash. | $3,500 |
| Calif. | $3,200 |
| N.H. | $3,100 |
| N.Y. | $2,300 |
| Minn. | $1,900 |
| Colo. | $1,700 |
| Conn. | $1,500 |
| Utah | $1,400 |
| Wyo. | $1,300 |
| Ill. | $1,300 |
| Nev. | $700 |
| N.M. | $14,800 |
| Md. | $12,300 |
| Va. | $11,600 |
| W.Va. | $10,300 |
| Alaska | $10,000 |
| Miss. | $9,100 |
| Ky. | $8,500 |
| Ala. | $8,200 |
| Hawaii | $7,600 |
| Okla. | $6,600 |
| La. | $6,400 |
| Maine | $6,300 |
| Ark. | $5,600 |
| S.C. | $5,600 |
| Ariz. | $4,400 |
| Mo. | $4,300 |
| N.C. | $3,800 |
| R.I. | $3,600 |
| Mont. | $3,500 |
| Del. | $3,400 |
| Ind. | $3,300 |
| Vt. | $3,300 |
| Tenn. | $3,200 |
| Ohio | $3,100 |
| Pa. | $2,700 |
| Mich. | $2,700 |
| Kan. | $2,300 |
| S.D. | $2,200 |
| Ga. | $2,100 |
| Iowa | $2,000 |
| N.D. | $2,000 |
| Ore. | $2,000 |
| Idaho | $1,800 |
| Texas | $1,500 |
| Wis. | $1,400 |
| Fla. | $800 |
| Neb. | $200 |
There are a few different ways one could calculate these figures (more on that later), but the Rockefeller Institute has been tabulating estimates for years, and its numbers, shown above, are often the ones cited by politicians themselves.