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Mountain State residents pride themselves on being the kinds of folks who pull themselves up by their bootstraps, work hard and depend as little on the government as possible, right? In fact, as the state swung from blue to very red, the sentiment seemed to be not only that we should not depend on the government, but that we could not trust it, either.
It may come as some surprise, then, to learn West Virginia is the fourth most federally dependent state. Only Alaska, Mississippi and Kentucky rely more on Washington.
Individual residents are the second most dependent on federal support. Our state government is 11th most dependent.
We are 50th for highest amount of grants received per federal taxes paid; 46th for th highest amount of other financial assistance received per federal taxes paid; and 48th for lowest GDP per capita.
Meanwhile, the least dependent state is Delaware, with New Jersey, Kansas, Utah and Washington following closely behind.
In what may seem a counterintuitive turn of events, blue states have an average ranking on WalletHub's "2022's Most and Least Federally Dependent States" of 30.56. Meanwhile, red states have an average ranking of 20.44. The lower number is more dependent.
Generally speaking, conservative voters tend to espouse small government. But the data show political theater is not translating to the reality in which residents of the more federally dependent states are living.
It is a reminder elected officials more interested in twisting the definition of conservative to their own ideology than in reviving and diversifying West Virginia's economy are helping cement the federal dependence they pretend to despise. Let's work to change that.