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      Our Vision
      BCP’s vision is that free-market municipal policy solutions are broadly available, widely acceptable, and regularly employed, enabling American cities to achieve their full potential as engines of economic prosperity. We reject the idea that cities are lost to free-market principles or policies.
      Our Mission
      BCP uncovers ideas that work, promotes realistic solutions, and forges partnerships that help people in America’s largest cities live free and happy lives.
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      Our Vision

      Address

      304 S. Jones Blvd #2826
      Las Vegas NV 89107

      Phone

      ‪(702) 546-8736‬

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      Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

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      info@better-cities.org

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      Home Clean, Open and Fair Government

      New municipal-finance report uncovers top performers, laggards among largest U.S. cities

      Irvine taxpayers can rejoice; those in New York might have something to worry about.

      Sheila WeinbergbySheila Weinberg
      January 27, 2020
      in Clean, Open and Fair Government
      Reading Time: 3 mins read
      A A
      New municipal-finance report uncovers top performers, laggards among largest U.S. cities
      Share on FacebookShare on TwitterLinkedInEmail
      The 2020 Financial State of the Cities (FSOC) surveys the fiscal health of the 75 largest municipalities in the United States. This data, released January 28 by Truth in Accounting (TIA) found that although 63 cities carried varying levels of debt, some quite large, there is some good news.
      Click on the image above to download a copy of the full report in PDF format.

      Twelve cities have more assets than obligations, a key indicator of long-term financial health. TIA designated these cities as “Sunshine Cities” because the government has money left over after all of the city’s bills are paid. Irvine, California can claim to have the best city finances in the U.S. with a $380 million surplus. If you were hypothetically to divide that figure by the number of Irvine taxpayers, each taxpayer’s share is $4,100, which is what TIA calls a Taxpayer Surplus™.

      The other top five Sunshine Cities are Washington, D.C., Charlotte, Fresno and Plano. While these cities are currently in good shape, TIA cautions against assuming these surplus funds should immediately be given back to the taxpayers or used for new spending.

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      Future economic downturns could adversely affect future tax revenues and the value of assets being held in retirement plans, which could diminish the city’s surplus. In some cases, the excess assets are held by the city’s pension plans and must be used to pay future benefits, not for government operations or other debt.

      The second piece of good news is that cities have become more transparent about their retirement debt. This gives elected officials and the public a truer picture of the government’s finances based upon the audited Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs). The FSOC study was based upon fiscal year 2018 CAFRs, in which the cities were required by a new accounting standard to report the vast majority of retiree health care debt on their balance sheets. Three years ago, governments using Generally Accepted Accounting Principles were required to report the pension debt on their balance sheets.

      TIA found that the amount of retiree health care debt that was not reported on the 75 cities’ balance sheets dropped from more than $27.5 billion for fiscal year 2017 to less than $1 billion for fiscal year 2018.

      The bad news, however, is that TIA identified 63 “Sinkhole Cities” that lack the necessary funds to pay their bills. TIA calculates a Taxpayer Burden for these cities, which is the amount of money needed to pay bills divided by the number of city taxpayers.

      TIA designated New York City as the worst city with a Taxpayer Burden of $63,100. Chicago, Honolulu, Philadelphia and New Orleans round out the top five Sinkhole cities.

      Taxpayer burden or surplus by city

      Links on city names go to in-depth reports on each city.
      RankCitySurplus(+) or Burden(-) Per Taxpayer
      1Irvine+$4,100
      2Washington, DC+$3,500
      3Charlotte+$3,400
      4Fresno+$3,200
      5Plano+$2,800
      6Stockton+$2,600
      7Lincoln+$2,500
      8Aurora+$2,200
      9Arlington+$2,100
      10Tampa+$1,700
      11Raleigh+$1,400
      12Tulsa+$100
      13Corpus Christi-$300
      14Oklahoma City-$400
      15Long Beach-$500
      16Greensboro-$700
      17San Antonio-$1,100
      18Wichita-$1,200
      19Louisville-$1,300
      20Bakersfield-$1,600
      21Fort Wayne-$1,700
      22Minneapolis-$1,900
      23Henderson-$1,900
      24Las Vegas-$2,100
      25Virginia Beach-$2,100
      26Colorado Springs-$2,300
      27Chula Vista-$2,300
      28Orlando-$2,300
      29Saint Paul-$2,300
      30Riverside-$3,300
      31Austin-$3,300
      32Indianapolis-$3,500
      33Memphis-$3,700
      34El Paso-$3,900
      35Los Angeles-$4,000
      36Toledo-$4,100
      37San Diego-4,500
      38Sacramento-$4,600
      39Columbus-$4,800
      40Cleveland-$5,100
      41Detroit-$5,100
      42Mesa-$5,300
      43Santa Ana-$5,400
      44Seattle-$5,400
      45Phoenix-$5,500
      46Albuquerque-$5,800
      47Anaheim-$6,200
      48Denver-$6,500
      49Omaha-$7,100
      50Anchorage-$7,800
      51Tucson-$8,100
      52Jacksonville-$8,500
      53Lexington-$9,100
      54Dallas-$9,400
      55San Jose-$9,400
      56Kansas City, MO-$9,800
      57Atlanta-$9,900
      58Boston-$10,200
      59Miami-$10,600
      60Houston-$11,600
      61Fort Worth-$12,300
      62Milwaukee-$12,800
      63St. Louis-$14,500
      64Pittsburgh-$15,600
      65Cincinnati-$15,600
      66Baltimore-$16,000
      67San Francisco-$17,000
      68Nashville-$18,400
      69Portland-$18,400
      70Oakland-$18,600
      71New Orleans-$18,800
      72Philadelphia-$25,500
      73Honolulu-$26,400
      74Chicago-$37,100
      75New York City-$63,100

      Taxpayer Burdens occur when politicians decide to make promises on paper without fully funding the programs. TIA emphasizes the need to fix the wording of balanced budget requirements so civil servants can count on their retirement programs, and future generations are not forced to pay for current bills.

      To that end, TIA has put together some best budgeting practices called FACT-based budgeting. FACT stands for full accrual calculations and techniques. These practices help governments live up to the intentions of their balanced budget requirements. Because many governments calculate their budget on a cash-basis, debt has accumulated and current costs have been pushed onto future taxpayers. Many governments ignore millions, if not billions, of dollars of compensation costs, related to earned pension and other retirement benefits, when calculating their budgets. This is the main reason for cities’ Taxpayer Burdens.

      TIA makes the Financial State of the Cities, their individual city reports and the financial data they have gathered from the CAFRs available to the public on their website Data-Z.  To add context to its Taxpayer Surplus/Burden amounts, this online database contains more than 700 data series and allows users to create charts that compare cities and states using demographic, economic and financial data. The website also includes a report on the federal government and financial data for the U.S. government.

      Tags: BudgetsFiscal PolicyTaxesTruth In Accounting
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      Sheila Weinberg

      Sheila Weinberg

      Sheila A. Weinberg is the founder & CEO of Truth in Accounting, a Chicago-based nonprofit that researches government financial data and promotes transparency for a better-informed citizenry. Her commentary on the federal budget, Social Security, Medicare, and other national issues has appeared repeatedly in numerous publications, including USA Today, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. She has been a guest on local and national television and radio shows and is often engaged to speak on federal and state budget and accounting issues.

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