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Arizona lawmakers love to fight the federal government — to an extent.
By one measure, there are only nine states that are more dependent on the federal government than Arizona.
It’s no secret that around 40 percent of Arizona’s revenue is federal money, which is the sixth-highest percentage in the nation.
But the finance website WalletHub came up with a pseudo-scientific measure of a state’s dependency on Washington with a few other factors, too.
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For example, for every dollar Arizonans pay in federal income taxes, the state gets about $1.61 back. That’s above average (obviously).
Arizona also has a slightly above-average number of federal employees per capita.
Factor in those three things, and they figure Arizona’s 10th-most reliant on the federal government.
One thing not taken into account is the fact that nearly half of Arizona land is either Indian land or owned by the federal government.
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