Revenues
Expand Social Security to Include Newly Hired State and Local Government Employees
CBO periodically issues a compendium of policy options (called Options for Reducing the Deficit) covering a broad range of issues, as well as separate reports that include options for changing federal tax and spending policies in particular areas. This option appears in one of those publications. The options are derived from many sources and reflect a range of possibilities. For each option, CBO presents an estimate of its effects on the budget but makes no recommendations. Inclusion or exclusion of any particular option does not imply an endorsement or rejection by CBO.
| Billions of Dollars | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 | 2031 | 2032 | 2023– 2027 |
2023– 2032 |
| Decrease (-) in the Deficit | -1.7 | -4.1 | -6.6 | -9.3 | -12.2 | -14.7 | -17.0 | -19.5 | -22.2 | -24.2 | -33.9 | -131.5 |
Data source: Staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation.
This option would take effect in January 2023.
An offset to reflect reduced income and payroll taxes has been applied to the estimates in this table.
The decrease in the deficit would consist of an increase in receipts from Social Security payroll taxes (which would be off-budget), offset in part by a reduction in individual tax revenues (which would be on-budget). In addition, the option would increase outlays for Social Security by a small amount in the short term. The estimates do not include those effects on outlays.
Under federal law, state and local governments can opt out of enrolling their employees in the Social Security program if they provide a separate retirement plan for those workers. As a result, about a quarter of workers employed by state and local governments are not covered by Social Security.
Under this option, Social Security coverage would be expanded to include all state and local government employees hired after December 31, 2022. Consequently, all newly hired state and local government employees would pay the Social Security payroll tax. Expanding Social Security coverage to all newly hired state and local government employees would have little impact on the federal government's spending for Social Security in the short term; therefore, the 10-year estimates shown above do not include any effects on outlays. The increased outlays for Social Security would grow in the following decades and would partly offset the additional revenues generated by newly covered employees.