Subject: Re: Zakaria, for the usual suspects who
New York with about 20 million people, Florida with 23 million. But New York state’s budget is more than double that of Florida ($239 billion vs. roughly $116 billion). New York City, which is a little more than three times the size of Miami-Dade County, has a budget of more than $100 billion, which is nearly 10 times that of Miami-Dade. New York City’s spending grew from 2012 to 2019 by 40 percent, four times the rate of inflation. Does any New Yorker feel that they got 40 percent better services during that time?

This question can be repeated in just about every blue state and municipality with the answer coming back a resounding NO every. Single. Time.

I'm sympathetic with Zakaria's argument, but he's being a little dodgy here. It's not meaningful to compare NYC's budget with that of Miami-Dade County, because Miami-Dade County is....well, it's a county, not a city. Most people in Miami-Dade County also live in a city, and they receive their municipal services (like police and fire and public works) from that City, and not the County. The population of Miami-Dade County that lives in the unincorporated area (and thus receives municipal services from MDC) is only about a million people. NYC is about 8.5x the size of that "city," so a budget of nearly 10x that of Miami-Dade isn't that ridiculous.

Also, while NYC's budget may have increased 40%, Miami-Dade County's has increased by about 50% over the same time period.

https://www.miamidade.gov/budg...
https://www.miamidade.gov/budg...

As for the state spending, for good or bad the lion's share of these disparities come down to Medicaid, not the type of municipal services that people think of when they imagine local government. Nearly half that big state budget is Medicaid (about $100 of $239 billion). New York state has the highest Medicaid expenditure per capita in the country; Florida's one of the lowest. That's because: i) medical costs are vastly more expensive in New York than elsewhere; and ii) New York has a very large number of people who qualify for Medicaid compared to most states. New York state has a vastly bigger budget than Florida in no small part because it has a bigger Medicaid program, not because they're providing any materially different state and local services to residents.

https://taxpolicycenter.org/st...
https://www.empirecenter.org/p...
https://worldpopulationreview....