Washington (CNSNews.com) – A taxpayer watchdog group marked “Cost of Government Day” Wednesday – the day when the average American has earned enough gross income to pay his or her share of the spending and regulatory burden imposed by government at the federal, state, and local level.

Cost of Government Day, sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), comes 26 days later than it did last year, when it fell on July 16. In fact, the day has never before come as late as August. Until this year, July 20 was the latest date marking Cost of Government Day – and that happened in 1982.

The day takes into account all taxes paid to all levels of government as well as the costs of complying with all federal, state, and local government regulations. ATR calculates that in 2009, the cost of government consumes 61.34 percent of national income.

Those costs are detailed in a 45-page report authored Monika Ciesielska, a fellow at ATR’s Center for Fiscal Accountability.

Of the 224 days required to pay off one’s share of the cost of government in 2009, 111 of those days account for federal spending, 49 days account for state and local spending, and another 65 are needed to pay for regulations imposed by all levels of government.

“In 2009, federal spending has expanded by almost one trillion dollars, mostly due to the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and the American Recovery and Relief Act of 2009, passed under the guise of economic stimulus,” Ciesielska said in her report.

“We have calculated that had Congress not passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 that created TARP, Cost of Government Day would have fallen on July 25. That means that it would have been 18 days earlier.”

Ciesielska noted that Cost of Government Day 2009 would have fallen about ten days earlier without stimulus-related expenditures.

Grover Norquist, president of ATR, said it’s no surprise that Cost of Government Day is taking longer and longer to reach: “In last year’s report, we cautioned that the looming entitlement crisis and efforts to drastically increase regulations were threatening to move Cost of Government Day later into the year,” says a message on ATR’s Web site. “However, no one could have foreseen the magnitude of the federal spending spree which was to begin in the second half of 2008, and has not abated since.”

According to ATR, “The recent federal spending spree paints a bleak picture for taxpayers. It started with the passage of the financial market bailout and continued with the “stimulus,” the $410 billion earmark-stuffed “omnibus,” the $3.55 trillion budget, and more bailouts leading to current threats of a national energy tax and a government takeover of health care.”

ATR noted with satisfaction the growing grass-roots movement – including so-called Tea Parties – that are pushing for increased transparency and accountability around the country.

In addition to several policy experts, the gathering was also addressed by California State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in 2010 against incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).

“California has so many things that are going wrong with our government right now, from both a tax and a regulatory and government growth standpoint, that it’s really hard to narrow it down,” he said.

According to ATR’s state-by-state breakdown, Cost of Government Day does not occur in DeVore’s home state of California until August 23, which is the fourth latest date in the nation.

The three states with the greatest cost-of-government burdens are Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York.

Connecticut taxpayers must work until Sept. 7 to pay off their government-imposed obligations. Alaska, by contrast, has the earliest Cost of Government Day – July 11."