public purse

public purse (plural public purses)

1. Money collected or controlled by the government or taxpayers meant for public use.

   The public purse should be spent in the public interest.

   • 2021 February 10, “Network News: Additional funds enable preparatory work for Ashington reopening”, in RAIL, number 924, page 8:

     This means that while initial funding will come from the public purse, landowners along the route will eventually pay back a share of the uplift in land values created by the new line.

• public funds

• “public purse”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.