We expect city budgets and financial reports to inform citizens and community leaders alike, but in reality, local government accounting is unnecessarily complicated, confusing, and illogical.
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This case shows why local governments need to do a better job accounting for maintenance costs.
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Recently, the North Carolina Ad Hoc Appraisals Committee was challenged to face their own biases and fix their broken property tax assessment system. Here’s what happened.
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Citizens can’t make informed decisions if they don’t know the financial condition of their government. This nonpartisan nonprofit is making those numbers both available and transparent.
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In this follow-up to last week’s piece about Galesburg, IL, we’ll look at what the town needs in order to recover and thrive.
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Citizens of Galesburg, IL, are trying to save their public indoor pool and create a new activity complex. City council is sympathetic, but there's just one problem: money.
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Unless we start making better accounting choices today, we’ll be facing service cuts and tax increases every year going forward. …That is, until the day we can’t anymore.
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Making city budgets accessible to the average citizen is crucial for building stronger places. Here’s 4 examples of cities that made their budgets not only accessible, but even fun!
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Cities are the economic engines of our society, yet as a recent report shows, their fiscal stability can be seriously affected by local tax limitations.
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If you pull back the curtain on North America’s financially insolvent cities, you’ll see what’s REALLY propping them up.
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There are major flaws in the accounting standards that shape municipal finance in American cities. But there’s an opportunity too: a chance to comment on—and perhaps change—those standards going forward.
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Local government must run a profit. Once we accept what that means and why it’s important, we’ll never look at infrastructure spending the same way again.
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Two residents of Santa Monica have ideas on how their city can adjust to new budget realities with focus and creativity. We think it’s an example for Strong Citizens everywhere.
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Financially, public pension funds are finished. There are two important reasons we need to admit this now…and find a way forward together.
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Communities are stuck in a spiral of infrastructure spending. Who will stand up and say enough is enough?
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The numbers don’t lie: business-as-usual suburban development won’t bring a booming town long-term financial strength. But it turns out that to #DoTheMath is only the first step toward changing your community's business model.
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Maybe the one good thing you can say about municipal debt is that it’s on the balance sheets. We’re tracking it. But there is another type of future obligation that is like debt…only worse. It comes back again and again, and too many cities aren’t paying attention.
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The unproductive use of infrastructure has put most cities, even those that are superficially prosperous, in a position where they won’t be able to afford to maintain what they’ve built. The signs of this crisis are everywhere—if you’re willing to look.
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When is it appropriate for a local government to take on debt? And other common questions we’ve answered for you—new this week in the Strong Towns Knowledge Base!
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Why build a downtown transit system if you’re just going to close it at peak demand?
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