Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Services cost more than taxes collected
Illegal immigrants negatively affect budgets, study says

By Billy House
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON

State and local taxes paid by undocumented immigrants fail to offset the cost of public services that state and local governments provide, a new study done for Congress says.

The same report said that state and local officials can do little to avoid or minimize some of these costs because they are limited by rules governing federal programs, court decisions and state laws or constitutional requirements.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office report does not estimate how much more money, exactly, is spent on public services for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants than the amounts taken in through their tax dollars.

But it said that these costs are concentrated in programs that make up a large percentage of total state spending, particularly in the areas of education, health care and law enforcement.

“The result is probably a modest negative impact on state and local budgets,â€