Budget Explorer · Borough of State College

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for Borough of State College, on the same Census classification used for every city, county, and state in the Library — so the figures line up with peers rather than with the government's own budget book. Latest year: FY ending Dec 31, 2022. Borough of State College's own 2026 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 40K residents

At a glance

Total revenue

$59M

$1,493 per resident

Total spending

$55M

$1,403 per resident

Spending per resident

$1,403

2nd percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$26M

$651 per resident · 4th percentile of 70

Own-source share

87%

78th percentile of 71

Capital share

12%

26th percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$59M total

Own-source revenue (taxes, charges, interest) versus aid from other governments. Utility and trust revenue are shown alongside general revenue but run on their own books.

Property tax$9.8M17%
Income taxes$6.2M11%
License & other taxes$4.7M8%
Federal aid$3.9M7%
State & local aid$3.6M6%
Charges & fees$28M48%
Interest, fines, other$2.4M4%

Own-source share of general revenue 87% · federal aid 7% · property tax is 47% of taxes

Where it goes

$55M total

Current operations plus capital outlay, grouped by Census function. Interest on debt and transfers to other governments are broken out so they are not hidden inside services.

Environment & housing$16M30%
General government$13M23%
Transportation$11M20%
Public safety$10M19%
Culture & recreation$3.5M6%
Interest on debt$832K2%
Health & hospitals$362K1%

Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸

Function	Category	Operating	Capital	Total
Police protection	Public safety	$9.7M	$87K	$9.8M
Highways	Transportation	$5.4M	$1.9M	$7.3M
Sewerage	Environment & housing	$6.2M	$769K	$7.0M
Solid waste management	Environment & housing	$5.5M	$945K	$6.5M
Parking	Transportation	$2.0M	$1.6M	$3.6M
General public buildings	General government	$2.8M	$642K	$3.5M
General (unallocable)	General government	$3.0M	$80K	$3.1M
Central staff services	General government	$3.1M	—	$3.1M
Financial administration	General government	$3.0M	—	$3.0M
Parks & recreation	Culture & recreation	$2.5M	$444K	$3.0M
Housing & community development	Environment & housing	$2.9M	—	$2.9M
Fire protection	Public safety	$602K	—	$602K
Libraries	Culture & recreation	$483K	—	$483K
Health	Health & hospitals	$362K	—	$362K

Trend · 2 fiscal years

Nominal dollars. The Census Bureau cautions that single-government series are edited only for aggregates — read direction, not decimals.

Revenue

-4% over 1 yrs

$61M → $59M

Spending

-0% over 1 yrs

$56M → $55M

Debt outstanding

-10% over 1 yrs

$28M → $26M

How it compares · 71 cities and counties in the Library

Percentile within the cohort on each place's latest Census year. Higher is not better — the last column says what a high reading means so you can decide whether it matters here.

Measure	Borough of State College	Cohort median	Percentile	Higher means
Spending per resident	$1,403	$3,741	2nd	more spent per resident
Revenue per resident	$1,493	$3,548	2nd	more raised per resident
Taxes per resident	$525	$1,328	2nd	heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident	$651	$3,865	4th	more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue	87%	81%	78th	less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue	7%	7%	49th	more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending	12%	18%	26th	more building, less operating
Interest share of spending	2%	4%	12th	more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue	0.44×	1.05×	14th	more leveraged

About this data

Census classification categories, not this government's own budget structure. Figures are audited actuals for the fiscal year shown, not the adopted budget.
The Census Bureau edits unit-level data only to produce state and national aggregates and advises against reading it as a precise time series for any single government; treat year-over-year moves under ~5% as noise.
Employee-retirement-system revenue is excluded (published separately by Census). Utility and insurance-trust revenue are shown separately from general revenue.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (Individual Unit public-use files), unit 422027133519 (State College Borough). Retrieved 2026-09-07. Classification manual.

Spot an error, or know a better source for this place's adopted budget? Suggest an edit on the assessment.

Adopted budget · 2026

Borough of State College's own budget, in its own structure, read from its published budget book and checked against the total the document itself prints. This is the current year — more recent than the Census series above, but only comparable to this city's own history. Totals cover 25 departments.

$72M total

Police$14M20%
Public Works Streets$13M17%
Public Works Sanitary Sewer$7.9M11%
Other$5.8M8%
Parking$5.4M7%
Administration$4.4M6%
Public Works Refuse/Compost$4.3M6%
Information Technology$2.8M4%
Public Works Administration$2.3M3%
Public Works Facilities$1.9M3%
Tax$1.5M2%
Public Works Trees/Parks$1.5M2%
All other (13)$7.5M10%

Parsed from the published budget book (page 40, All Funds Cross Tabulation) — every fund, net of transfers between funds.
The book's department totals add to $72,256,740, $20,000 more than the $72,236,740 it prints; the Administration line is the one whose fund figures do not add up. The departments here follow the book's printed department totals.
The text layer glues each department's two-digit code to its first figure, and misprints Public Works Streets as $112,594,213; the correct $12,594,213 is confirmed by that row's own fund columns.
Source: 2026 Adopted Budget (All Funds Cross Tabulation) (published budget book), retrieved 2026-09-13. Open the source document.

Looking for how this fits Borough of State College's capacity to deliver? The fiscal dimension, binding constraint, and pathways live in the Borough of State College capacity assessment.