Updating State and Local Financial Indicators

Carol W. Lewis

Municipal Finance Journal, 2003, vol. 24, issue 1, 17 - 35

Abstract: By examining the financial indicators commonly used to interpret budgetary and financial data, this paper seeks to update several widely used indicators to account for the financial aspects of a changing society, changing intergovernmental relationships, the increased availability of information, and other factors that are more significant in shaping budgetary realities today than they were when financial indicators first evolved. Financial indicators are just one among several sets of measures relevant to budgetary decision-making, and current best practice calls for using numerous, varied budgetary and financial measures. This study suggests that, for a truer reflection and better understanding of financial condition, alternatives to per capita standardization be developed, unreserved fund balance be accorded a more prominent place in public discourse and political debate, and reliance upon intergovernmental revenue be reinterpreted.

Date: 2003
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