NJBIZ: REPORT SUGGESTS NJ GOVERNMENT GROUPS CUT DOWN THEIR $117B IN SPENDING

The cost of keeping the lights on for over 1,500 state, county and municipal government agencies figures in at nearly $117 billion, according to a report by the right-leaning think tank Garden State Initiative released Wednesday.

All told, those three layers of state government raised $86 billion. Add on federal funds and that number shoots up to just over $100 billion.

Add to that revenues from public worker fund investments, and revenue from authorities operating in the state, such as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and that number tops off at just over $120 billion.

Property taxes account for $28 billion, or 24 percent of all revenue collected, according to the report, while public employee benefits account for 22 percent of the $117 billion spent.

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