Direct expenditure
All expenditure except that classified as inter­govern­mental. It includes "direct current expenditure" (salaries, wages, fees, commissions and purchases of supplies, materials, and contractual services) and "capital outlays" (con­struction and purchase of equipment, land, and existing structures). Capital outlays are included for the year when the direct expenditure is made, regardless of how the funds are raised (for example, by bond issue) or when they are paid back.

Full-time employees
All persons employed on a full-time basis, including all full-time temporary or seasonal workers who were employed during this pay period.

Full-time equivalent employment
A statistical measure that estimates the number of full-time employees that could have been employed if the reported number of hours worked by part-time employees had been worked by full-time employees.

Intergovernmental expenditure
The sum of payments from one government to another, including grants-in-aid, shared revenues, payments in lieu of taxes, and amounts for services performed by one government for another on a reimbursable or cost-sharing basis (for example, payments by one government to another for boarding prisoners). It excludes amounts paid to other governments for purchase of commodities, property, or utility services.

Judicial and legal services
Includes all civil and criminal courts and acti­vities associated with courts, such as law libraries, grand juries, petit juries, medical and social service activities, court reporters, judicial councils, bailiffs, and probate functions. It also includes the civil and criminal justice activities of the attorneys general, dis­trict attorneys, state's attorneys, and their variously named equivalents and corporation coun­sels, solicitors, and legal departments with various names. It excludes legal units of noncriminal justice agencies, whose functions may be performed by a legal services department in other jurisdictions (such as a county counsel).

Justice employees
Justice employees are all persons on government payrolls. This includes paid officials and persons on paid leave but excludes unpaid officials, persons on unpaid leave, pensioners, and contractors.

Justice expenditure
Includes only external cash payments made from any source of funds, including any payments fi­nanced from borrowing, fund balances, inter­governmental revenue, and other current revenue. It excludes any intra­governmental transfers and noncash trans­actions, such as the provision of meals or housing of employees. It also excludes retirement of debt, investment in securities, extensions of loans, or agency transactions. Total expendi­tures for all government functions do include interest payments on debt, but the justice expenditure data do not.

Justice functions
Justice expenditure and employment variables that include three primary categories: police protection, judicial and legal services, and corrections.

Payroll
Gross 1-month payroll before deductions. This includes salaries, wages, fees, and commissions paid to employees.

Police protection
The function of enforcing the law, preserving order, and apprehending those who violate the law, whether these activities are performed by a city police department, sheriff's department, state police, or federal law enforcement agency, such as the FBI or the Drug Enforcement Administration. Private security police are outside the scope of the survey.