THE FISCAL PROBLEM IN MISSOURI 
StaTE EXPENDITURES 
It is common knowledge that the annual expenditures of 
the state governments have been increasing rapidly. Each 
year the combined data for the forty-eight states indicate a 
total appreciably larger than that for the previous year. 
Numerous reasons might be presented for the increasing 
volume of state expenditures. The most important are per- 
haps the extension of state activities into fields previously 
left entirely or largely to the local governments and the 
assumption by the state of certain functions that formerly 
were not regarded as within the proper sphere of government. 
Then, too, the public has become accustomed to a higher 
standard of living and consequently demands governmental 
services that are more extensive in scope and of a higher 
quality than was once deemed satisfactory. Governmental 
expenditures have naturally increased with the growth of 
private expenditures. Our economic and social order is in a 
state of change, and it follows that the province of govern- 
ment and the distribution of governmental functions must 
andergo continuous alterations, if government is to keep 
pace with economic and social changes. It is probable that 
the increase in the expenditures of the states as well as of 
other governmental units can be explained largely on the 
basis of this concept of change. 
While state expenditures have been increasing rapidly, 
it does not follow that the trend for any particular state has 
been continuously upward. Capital expenditures are fre- 
quently very irregular, and as a result the total expenditures 
of a number of states may actually show a decline over a 
period of several years, although there is a gradual or very 
striking increase in the combined expenditures of all state 
governments. Occasionally, administrative consolidations 
and reforms, effective over a period of several years, will 
contribute toward a decline in a particular state in the face 
of the general upward trend. However, where a rapid de- 
cline or an unusual variation in the total expenditures of a 
particular state is noted, the most important factor con- 
tributing to the result is usually found to be the fluctuation 
of expenditures for capital purposes. As will be seen later.