Released Monday, this Census Bureau report provides data on state and local spending for 1999. The data are available as Excel tables and self-extracting .zip files (non-delimited, comma delimited, and coefficients of variation, comma delimited) and cover four main areas of finances: revenue, expenditures, debt, and assets. Revenues are detailed by type and source, and expenditures by function....

As required by US law, a census of governments is undertaken every five years. As with the previous one, the 1997 census covers three major fields: government organization, public employment, and government finances. Recently released by the US Census Bureau, this is the first volume of the 1997 census. "The report contains the official counts of the number of state and local governments. It also...