Does Montana Depend More on the Government Than Any Other States?
Some states received more money than others to help alleviate costs incurred during the COVID-19 Pandemic that's still going on. It begs the question, was Montana one of the states to get extra assistance? While I don't know the answer to that question, a website called WalletHub.com used some data to determine the most and least federally dependent states in the United States. Where does Montana rank on that scale? I can answer that for you.
Montanans don't rank as high as the state government's rating.
As it turns out, the data that WalletHub found shows Montana at number 5 in the nation for federal dependency. But looking closer, the data shows that Montana residents rank number 13 in dependency, but the Montana government ranks at number 2.
Unfortunately, the data doesn't show how much assistance the government has given the state of Montana, but the graph does show that states with lower Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are more likely to receive aid from the government. It's also worth noting that Republican-leading states are also more likely to be federally dependent than Democrat-leading states.
Montana also gets a lot of grant money.
Montana also gets the fifth most grant funding from the federal government in the United States. This could be for any number of things, from education to first responders. According to an article from NationalInterest.org, states that have good financial relationships with the government mean good long-term implications for the state's residents and local businesses as well.
It's an interesting article to read. I never realized just how much Montana depends on the government for funding. Many residents don't but the state itself definitely does.