This chart shows the flow of money from federal to state, federal to local, and state to local governments for the period from 1927 to 1997. The X-axis represents fiscal years: from 1927 to 1934, one unit covers 7 fiscal years; from 1934 to 1952, one unit covers 6 years; from 1965 to 1970 a unit covers 3 years; and from 1970 to 1997 a unit covers 2 fiscal years. The Y-axis represents the percentage of revenue of lower levels of government that depends on higher levels of governments. Generally speaking, local governments receive about 30 percent of their revenue from state governments. State governments, historically, have received roughly between 10 and 23 percent of their revenue from the federal government, except for the period from 1927 to 1934 when the percentage rose from 5 percent to about 27 percent. Flows from federal to local governments show the lowest percentage of dependence, less than 10 percent for the whole period.

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