Of course, that means taxpayers in 17 states paid more in federal taxes than they got in return for things like highways, Medicaid and defense spending.

The study found that federal spending on defense and other procurement items are often funneled to the states of powerful members of Congress. And Utah had two powerful senators in key positions to make things happen.

Some states have also learned how to leverage more federal tax dollars, pushing up their return on investment.

"However, demography may be more influential than politics," the study found. "States with more residents on Social Security, Medicare and other large federal entitlements are bound to rank fairly high."

Utah has been steadily improving its ratio of federal dollars received versus federal dollars returned to the state.

In 1996, the state was actually paying a penny more in federal taxes than it was getting back from the federal government, the study found. By 2003, the state's rate of return had climbed 20 percent.

Utah fared particularly well during the first three years of the Bush administration, especially compared to the last five years of the Clinton administration, when the state's ranking dipped as low as 31.

Other states have also done well. In fact, 17 states improved their returns more than Utah since 1994. (Alaska saw the most improvement, a 59 cent increase.)

And 16 states saw their returns actually decline over that 10-year period. (Colorado dropped the most, from $1 in 1994 to 80 cents in 2003.)

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E-mail: spang@desnews.com