Monday Trivia #131
Wyoming, New Mexico, California, Alaska, Arkansas, North Carolina, Illinois, Hawaii, Nevada, New York, Georgia, Idaho, Texas, Florida, Nebraska, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Washington, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Kentucky, Utah, Mississippi, Connecticut, North Dakota, West Virginia, Missouri, Kansas, Massachusetts, Arizona, Maryland, New Jersey, Montana, Maine, Alabama, Indiana, South Dakota, South Carolina, Oregon, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, Virginia, Rhode Island, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Delaware, Vermont, and last New Hampshire.
Georgie? I didn’t know you and Georgia were on such familiar terms.Report
She’s been on his mind.Report
Hmmm… Wyoming leads the list, along with three other large western states. Colorado is in the last four, along with three of the Eastern statelets.Report
Percentage of land owned by the federal government? Nah, probably not. Idaho couldn’t be lower than NY.Report
This one has me stumped. Just about any demographic thing I can think of would have Hawaii, Utah, or Nevada at one extreme or the other. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a list of anything that puts Utah at #22. It’s not population density, or congressional representation per person (WY made me think of that). There are some energy producers near the beginning, but then North Dakota should be right there with them. It doesn’t even match last night’s Miss America rankings (and how cruel would it be to publish the bottom 10%, anyway?).Report
Monday Hint: It’s a percentage of something.Report
Everything’s a percentage of something.Report
Well yes, but not all Monday Trivia answers begin with “The percentage of…”Report
Ooh, I know: all of them are US states.Report
Close, but no cigar. “Kentucky” is on the list.Report
Also, Georgie, apparentlyReport
Okay, I fixed “Georgie.” Give the guy a slackburger with cheese, okay? It’s painstaking work typing all that stuff.Report
But it was swinging down the street so fancy-free.Report
Vehicles on the road powered by LNG.Report
If Wyoming’s #1, it’s gotta be something to do with national parks, right? I mean, is there anything else in Wyoming?Report
Propane, and propane accessories.Report
Percentage of population that lives free *and* dies.Report
This is close to, but not quite, the suicide rate ranking list. Maybe it’s a subset, like teen suicide rate.Report
Tuesday Hint: It’s a bit surprising that there isn’t a stronger political correlation on the list, because it’s mostly or entirely a matter of state government policy.Report
Higher education funding as a percentage of state budget?Report
OK, so I thought speed limits, and Wyoming is along the top at 75 mph, but Utah has some 80 mph roads, and Texas goes up to 85 mph. Whatever you do, don’t mess with a Texan going 85 mph! Montana used to have no speed limit other than “reasonable and proper”, but the courts held that the law was too vague, so now they’re suffering under a 75 mph maximum.Report
That’s not a percentage.Report
Stand up for your rights, Montanans! It’s a slippery slope! (Also, watch out for slippery slopes when you’re going 75 mph.)Report
Percentage of land dedicated to state parks?Report
Wednesday Hint:
Wyoming is 86%
Texas 62.6%
North Dakota 51%
United States 53.5%
Indiana 41%
Delaware 27.6%
New Hampshire 15%Report
Statistics from 2011. They’re subject to change from one year to the next, but random fluctuation is minimal.Report
Thursday Hint: Someone has already come really close to guessing it.Report
Percent recieving federal benefits. That 53% US # looks familiar.Report
I’ll guess again, hoping I was the one who got really close before: percent of homes heated by natural gas as opposed to, say, coal or oil.Report
Late Thursday Hint: Michael Cain was almost right.Report
Percentage of school funding provided by the state (as opposed to local) government?Report
Okay, then, I’m going to say it’s funding of community colleges.Report
Keeping chipping away at it…Report
Education funding as a percentage of the state budget.Report
Not quite. Keep in mind, Wyoming is 86%, and New Hampshire at 15%. The average is a little over 50%.Report
I’ve got a good feeling that if we keep this up we can drive Will over the edge.Report
Federal expenditures as a percentage of state higher education budgets?Report
Higher education budget as a percentage of total education spending.Report
Monday Trivia Answer: Percentage of college tuition costs covered by the state.Report
Does your source explain how they calculated the amount? The way Colorado does things is really peculiar, and while I’m not surprised that we’re far down on the list, I’m just curious if they got things correct.Report
Here is the source. For what it’s worth, it looks like only somewhat recently that Colorado has been on the slide. It looks like something happened between 2001 and 2003.Report
Some background on Wyoming: Wyoming is, surprisingly, one of the wealthiest states in the country in terms of per-capita GDP. My guess is that this is due to a fair bit of natural resource wealth divided by a very small population. America’s Norway, essentially.
Actually, I guess Alaska is America’s Norway. Same deal economically, but they also have the weather for it.Report
Up until recently, Wyoming let out-of-staters take their distance ed courses for $100/hr, which was roughly half the cost of the next cheapest option. Unfortunately, they decided to start charging out-of-staters more. North Dakota doesn’t, but is still over twice as much.Report
I thought I mentioned this in my last comment, but the source link is broken.Report
FixedReport
Wyoming is, surprisingly, one of the wealthiest states in the country in terms of per-capita GDP.
They fall significantly when you use median household income instead, which I’ve always thought was a more useful measure — . Nevertheless, Wyoming has tucked away a lot of severance tax revenue (largely paid by people in other states) to support higher ed.
Colorado’s spending on higher ed demonstrates that Grover Norquist’s “starve the beast” strategy can work at a state level where there are balanced budget requirements. The Taxpayer Bill of Rights amendment (TABOR) added to the Colorado state constitution in 1992 was designed to permanently ratchet down state spending every time there was a recession. The ratchet was removed by voters in 2005 (then-governor Bill Owens probably cost himself a national role for the Republicans by campaigning for the 2005 change). Absent those “Ref C” changes, the 2007-09 recession would probably have taken Colorado out of the higher education business entirely. At one point during the recession, the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee required every state post-secondary school to submit their plan for dealing with the situation of zero state funding.Report
They fall significantly when you use median household income instead, which I’ve always thought was a more useful measure
Which one is more useful depends on how you intend to use it. GDP is a better measure of money available for the state to tax, I would think.Report