The spending would begin immediately and grow steadily over the years.

He added that the city's spending had grown faster than the rate of the economy for the last 16 years.

Federal spending on Medicare has been growing an average of 10 percent a year for a decade.

But in the last four years, discretionary spending has grown about 8 percent a year.

Business leaders point out that for several years state spending has been growing at a rate significantly faster than inflation.

Meanwhile, personal spending grew only 0.4 percent in June, the smallest increase this year.

In the late 1990's, such spending was growing more than 10 percent a year.

National spending on personal health care grew by 10.7 percent, to $282 billion, last year.

Federal spending on Medicaid grew 11 percent last year, to $130 billion.

He said this was important because Federal spending had been growing far faster than the tax base.