Hi Joe - I’m interested in trying to calculate the Financial Strength Indicator for my area, but unsure of where to pull the numbers. Is the numerator in your equation the total value of all taxable property within the boundaries of the municipality? And for the denominator, is this just municipal expenditures? Or are you looking at road and sewer maintenance specifically? Not sure how to determine true maintenance liability vs what’s actually been spent each year.
I’m in a different state so I’m sure the reporting’s different but any guidance would be greatly appreciated, really enjoying your writing.
Sure thing! This information is often buried pretty deep in city financial reports and can vary on accessibility.
For both the numbers I found these in Galesburg’s annual Financial Report which is separate from their budget.
The numerator is the total assessed property values (might also be expressed as total actual property values). This is essentially the sum of the asssessed market price of ALL properties on the city.
Then the denominator is Government Capital Assets. This is the sum of the value of the all the stuff the city government owns. There may be some discretion with this one. For Galesburg they had it broken out between government capital assets and business-type capital assets which seemed to mostly be land the city owned but have the intent to sell. So I ended up just using the governmental capital assets because I feel that painted a more accurate picture.
But you will have to dig for these numbers, these won’t be found on any news releases or promos. They are buried in the city’s financial documents.
Thanks! I was only able to pull six years of financials from the website so I’ll have to decide if I want to OPRA the rest. I ended up using “investment in general fixed assets” as the denominator as it was the closest thing I could find to a listing of township assets.
Even over those 6 years the FSI dropped from 25 to 21. The local government is currently working on a redevelopment plan to put a bunch of new residential and commercial property downtown so hopefully that’ll help arrest the fall.
My hometown has the same streets problem. And deferring street maintenance, especially in the Midwest with its freeze / thaw cycles is (in my opinion) a false economy. And, poor streets are another signal that moving there is a bad idea. What about the infrastructure you can’t see - physical and human? Sewers old and failing requiring expensive fixes or mandated upgrades that have been deferred too long? Lead water pipes? Poor police or fire response?
Hi Joe - I’m interested in trying to calculate the Financial Strength Indicator for my area, but unsure of where to pull the numbers. Is the numerator in your equation the total value of all taxable property within the boundaries of the municipality? And for the denominator, is this just municipal expenditures? Or are you looking at road and sewer maintenance specifically? Not sure how to determine true maintenance liability vs what’s actually been spent each year.
I’m in a different state so I’m sure the reporting’s different but any guidance would be greatly appreciated, really enjoying your writing.
Sure thing! This information is often buried pretty deep in city financial reports and can vary on accessibility.
For both the numbers I found these in Galesburg’s annual Financial Report which is separate from their budget.
The numerator is the total assessed property values (might also be expressed as total actual property values). This is essentially the sum of the asssessed market price of ALL properties on the city.
Then the denominator is Government Capital Assets. This is the sum of the value of the all the stuff the city government owns. There may be some discretion with this one. For Galesburg they had it broken out between government capital assets and business-type capital assets which seemed to mostly be land the city owned but have the intent to sell. So I ended up just using the governmental capital assets because I feel that painted a more accurate picture.
But you will have to dig for these numbers, these won’t be found on any news releases or promos. They are buried in the city’s financial documents.
Hope this helps!
Thanks! I was only able to pull six years of financials from the website so I’ll have to decide if I want to OPRA the rest. I ended up using “investment in general fixed assets” as the denominator as it was the closest thing I could find to a listing of township assets.
Even over those 6 years the FSI dropped from 25 to 21. The local government is currently working on a redevelopment plan to put a bunch of new residential and commercial property downtown so hopefully that’ll help arrest the fall.
My hometown has the same streets problem. And deferring street maintenance, especially in the Midwest with its freeze / thaw cycles is (in my opinion) a false economy. And, poor streets are another signal that moving there is a bad idea. What about the infrastructure you can’t see - physical and human? Sewers old and failing requiring expensive fixes or mandated upgrades that have been deferred too long? Lead water pipes? Poor police or fire response?