This article compares state expenditure data to see how the operating budgets of public community colleges specifically, and public higher education institutions generally, have fared over the past 30 years. Data from the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) have long tracked major state expenditure categories, including the fastest growing and largest component of state expenditures, Medicaid. But NASBO's higher education expenditure data includes state need- and merit-based student aid, and does not isolate public higher education operating budgets. We advance the scholarship by comparing NASBO data to institution and state public higher education operating budget data obtained from the U.S. Department of Education Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).