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The Empire Center's Web-based Spend-o-Meter

April 01, 2009
Calibrated to the Legislature’s estimate of $131.8 billion in "all funds" spending under the enacted budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year, the Empire Center's "Spend-O-Meter" spins at the following rates:

$4,179 per second

$250,761 per minute

$15,045,662 per hour

$361,095,890 per day

$2,534,615,385 per week

$10,983,333,333 per month

"Under this year's budget, our state government will spend more every hour than 200 typical New York families earn in a year," said E.J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center.  “The Spend-O-Meter continues to spin at a faster rate every year, even though our economy is crashing.”

Methodology

The Empire Center's Budget Spend-O-Meter project reflects the "all funds" financial plan disbursements of New York's state government for the current fiscal year (April 1, 2009-March 31, 2010). The Spend-O-Meter calculates the amount spent since 12:00am on April 1, 2009.

The Spend-O-Meter calculates the amount based on the "clock time" of the viewer's computer. Viewers with incorrect time settings or malfunctioning computer clocks may see inaccurate numbers.

Copyright 2006 Total Total Consulting Strategies, Inc.

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