Study Needed...How Many South Dakotans Receive Government Checks?

I have heard statistics that indicate over half of South Dakotans receive a government issued check throughout the year (without including tax refunds). I have also heard that South Dakota receives $4 from the Federal Government for every $1 we pay in taxes.

I would like to verify these statistics.

I have verified that less than half of the people in South Dakota actually are in the non-government related workforce. When you subtract out the number of children and retired people, the labor force is 446,000 (2005 SD Labor Department). Of this number, 15,000 people are unemployed and 76,000 work for some level of government, bringing the number of non government workers at 355,000 in the private sector. With the total population of South Dakota around 790,000, 45% of our people are working in the private sector.

If you subtract out the 33,000 people deriving income from farms, we could assume they, too, receive government subsidies, so 322,000 don't receive government checks. 

Many people, though working, receive money from the government in forms of government aid, food stamps, section 8 housing, reduced school lunches, Medicaid, reduced school loans, grants and other government subsidies.

The purpose of my inquiry is to determine the actual number of people that don't receive a dime from the Federal Government. These are the people that are frustrated about the size of the government. These are the people who are really paying for the our government programs. To these people, I would like to say thank you!

Those receiving money from the government are becoming more and more compromised when it comes to reducing the size of government. Once there are more than half of the voters reliant on government spending, our country ceases to be free.