Introduction

We are continuing our series on building a more fiscally sustainable community. This week we will look at standard fiscal indicators and how they can help local leaders make more sustainable fiscal and economic choices.

Broad Categories of Indicators

There are two broad categories of fiscal and economic indicators. The first category covers economic or social activity outside the organization. These include measures of community population, jobs and other economic and demographic indicators. These are important because they determine municipal resources through the tax base. They also influence need for municipal services and infrastructure spending.

The second class of indicators measure features of municipal operations and finance. These are internal or organizational indicators. These reflect a combination of policy choices by the city and the influence of external indicators.

There are many metrics in each category. Our review will focus on high-level, summary indicators. After starting with these high-level indicators, each community may want to identify more detailed metrics that are important for its circumstances.

Revenue Indicators

Most cities begin budgeting and planning by reviewing revenue performance and projecting future revenue. This is practical, but communities could just as easily start budgeting by looking at service needs. It would be an interesting experiment if a community were to begin budgeting with an ongoing engagement process similar to the one we discussed in recent posts. The goal would be to developed a budget that citizens were willing to pay for. This might support sustainability by starting with citizen willingness to pay rather than automatically budgeting to the maximum available revenue. Whatever process a city uses, key revenue indicators for sustainable finance include:

• General operating revenue by source in total and per capita terms
• Grant and other inter-local agreement revenue

Operational / Service Indicators

City revenue sources differ some from state to state, but spending priorities are similar. Public safety, parks, libraries, streets and other infrastructure dominate general fund spending in every city. Detailed studies of major programs can find potential improvement and efficiency opportunities, but tracking overall spending is a good place to start. Important service indicators include:

• Growth in total and per resident expenses by function or department
• Total employment by function and department

Operating Position Indicators

A city’s operating position means its ability to balance its budget on a current basis with current revenues. A sound operating position will support day-to-day liquidity and prevent a city from having to dip into operating reserves for ordinary expenses. Every city will experience periodic emergencies, but repeated drawdown of reserve funds is a sign of long-term structural financial problems. In these cases, a city needs to have a serious conversation with taxpayers. The community needs to decide if it is willing and capable of supporting current service levels or whether city operations need to be simplified. The most important operating position indicators include:

• Total annual revenue minus total spending
• Liquidity measured by ratio of cash and short term investments to current liabilities
• Fund balances

Debt and Infrastructure

It can be helpful to citizens and decision makers to report debt indicators with key infrastructure indicators. This will improve understanding of the conditions of city capital assets in the context of debt capacity. Key debt and infrastructure indicators include:

• Net debt per-capita
• Total debt-service as a percent of tax base
• Road, bridge and other asset conditions

External Indicators

There are many economic indicators that help local leaders understand what is influencing city spending and revenue. The most important to track are total population, total households, household income and jobs in the city. Central cities may also be interested in measuring commuting and other indicators of how their services are supporting nonresidents.

Fiscal analysts and economists have identified hundreds of potentially useful indicators. It is a good idea to start with a small set and learn what you can from them. Any community will gain important insights from the few listed above. For more detailed information you can consult the Government Finance Officers Association and the International City/County Management Association.

Next Week

Next week, we will look at the long-term financial planning process for fiscal sustainability. For more information on how Axianomics can help your community build and use a fiscal trend monitoring system, fill out our contact form.