State government payroll per capita in 2006

Remember when state Auditor Glen Gainer posted the salaries of state workers on the Web?

The Census Bureau has released data of state payrolls for 2006. I took the total payroll and divided each state's payroll by its population to see how much we pay here per capita for our state work force. With a small, not-so-affluent population and not much of a home business base, you can expect it to be high. And it was higher than average. Try these numbers:

US Average: $56.01 of March 2006 state government payroll per resident.

West Virginia: $62.35.

Ohio: $45.35.

Kentucky: $64.37.

Florida (lowest per capita): $36.32.

Hawaii (highest per capita): $161.24.

As I said before, there are reasons West Virginia is higher than the national average, including several I did not mention here.