Rural Development Strategies: Federal Funds and Development: Tables

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Definitions

The 2004 ERS County Typology is a classification system that was developed to group counties by economic and policy-relevant characteristics. The County Typology used here are those described in 2004 County Typology Codes.

County economic types—(mutually exclusive; a county may fall into only one economic type): Farming-dependent, Manufacturing-dependent, Mining-dependent, Federal/State government-dependent, Services-dependent, and Non-specialized.

County policy types—(overlapping; a county may fall into any number of these types): Housing stress, Low-education, Low-employment, Persistent poverty, Population loss, Nonmetro recreation, and Retirement destination.

Census regions—We use the Census-defined regions as follows:

Northeast: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

South: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

West: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

In most cases, we use only the nonmetro portion of these regions when referring to county-level data variations.

Metro areas—Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), as defined by the Office of Management and Budget, include central counties containing one or more urbanized areas (urban nucleus with 50,000 or more population); outlying counties are included if economically tied to the core counties as measured by work commuting.

Nonmetro areas—These are counties outside metro area boundaries. "Rural" and "nonmetro" are used interchangeably to refer to people and places outside of MSAs. For more details on metro and nonmetro definitions, see What is Rural.

Rural-urban continuum county codes—A Classification system developed by ERS to group counties by the size of their urban population and the adjacency to metropolitan areas. Urbanized, less urbanized, and totally rural nonmetro counties fall under this classification. For more details see Rural-Urban Continuum Codes.

Census Program Object Classifications

Salaries and Wages
Procurement Contracts
Direct Payments for Individuals (retirement and disability only)
Direct Payments for Individuals (other than retirement and disability)
Direct Payments Other than for Individuals
Grants (block grants, formula grants, project grants, and cooperative agreements)
Direct Loans
Guaranteed/Insured Loans
Insurance (this category is usually excluded from ERS analysis)

ERS Program Function Classifications:

ERS's six broad function categories for Federal programs are as follows:

Agriculture and natural resources: agricultural assistance, agricultural research and services, forest and land management, water and recreation resources;

Community resources: business assistance, community facilities, community and regional development, environmental protection, housing, native American programs, and transportation;

Defense and space: aeronautics and space, defense contracts, defense payroll and administration;

Human resources: elementary and secondary education, food and nutrition, health services, social services, training and employment;

Income security: medical and hospital benefits, public assistance and unemployment compensation, retirement and disability--includes Social Security; and

National functions: criminal justice and law enforcement, energy, higher education and research, and all other programs, excluding insurance.

Budgetary Terms

Budget authority—The authority becoming available during the year to enter into obligations that will result in immediate or future outlays of Government funds. In some cases, budget authority can be carried over to following years. It can take the form of appropriations, which permit obligations to be incurred and payments to be made, or authority to borrow, or authority to contract in advance of separate appropriations. Supplemental appropriations provide budget authority when the need for funds is too urgent to be postponed until the next annual appropriations act.

Obligations incurred—Once budget authority is enacted, Government agencies may incur obligations to make payments. These include current liabilities for salaries, wages, and interests; contracts for purchase of supplies and equipment, construction, and the acquisition of office space, buildings, and land. In our tables and charts, when reporting obligations for credit programs, we report the total value of the loans obligated or guaranteed.

Outlays—This is the measure of Government spending. Outlays are payments to liquidate obligations (other than repayment of debt), net of refunds and offsetting collections.

Direct loan—This is the disbursement of funds by the Government to a non-Federal borrower under a contract that requires repayment, with or without interest.

Loan guarantee—This is any guarantee, insurance, or other pledge with respect to the payment of all or a part of the principal or interest on any debt obligation of a non-Federal borrower to a non-Federal lender.

Fiscal year—A fiscal year is the U.S. Government's accounting period. It begins October 1 and ends September 30, and is designated by the calendar year in which it ends.