Fiscal health of local governments and municipalities has remained an important issue since the crises of the 1970s in places like New York, Philadelphia and Cleveland. More recently, the bankruptcy of Orange County California raised the possibility of a different type of financial failure than earlier ones. The beginning of the 21st century has witnessed two major economic bubbles including the dotcom and housing bubbles. These economic cycles combined with increasing health care, pension and other structural costs continue to challenge the fiscal viability of many jurisdictions. In particular, the economic and financial crisis of 2007-2008 is likely to result in potentially serious fiscal challenges for local jurisdictions.

Fiscal Health for Local Governments offers a how-to approach to identifying and solving financial problems. Its principal selling point lies in its assumptions: instead of using the vocabulary and research agendas of economist, finance scholars, and political scientists, it will appeal to readers who lack sophisticated knowledge in these areas and nevertheless need practical advice. The book stems from the Fiscal Health Education Program, an applied economics program at the University of Minnesota. It uses three measures of fiscal health — financial condition, trend analysis, and financial trend monitoring system — as the basis for advocating particular fiscal strategies. The book examines the tools that can be used to assess the condition of a local government's fiscal health and some of the policy causes or remedies for certain situations, as well as some of the strategies governments can pursue to maintain and improve health. It will serve as a primer for readers interested in understanding financial processes and alternatives, and as a practical guide for those who need access to fiscal measurement tools. How-to approach will appeal to readers who lack sophisticated knowledge Contains discussion questions and anonymous case studies of actual cities and municipalities Presents practical methods for identifying and solving common fiscal problems

Understanding Municipal Fiscal Health provides an in-depth assessment of the fiscal health of cities throughout the United States. The book examines the tools currently available to cities for designing a revenue structure, measuring fiscal conditions and measuring fiscal health. It explains how artificial policies such as tax and expenditure limitations influence fiscal policies, and how communities can overcome socioeconomic and state-policy barriers to produce strong fiscal conditions. The authors go beyond simple theory to analyze patterns of fiscal health using actual financial, demographic and TEL data from an accurate data source, the Government Financial Officers Association survey. The book offers a solid basis of empirical evidence including quantitative case studies—complete with discussion questions—to help practitioners better understand the environment in which they are functioning and the policy tools they need to help advocate for change. This book teaches the reader the science and art of municipal financial analysis, and will be invaluable for local and state officials, analysts, and students and researchers.

This dissertation investigates state and local government budget behavior over the business cycle with the aim of improving the design and implementation of fiscal policy. It examines how the various components of state-local government budgets have behaved historically and seeks to understand how on-the-ground, practical, and political issues impact state and local government's ability to engage in countercyclical spending. The first chapter of this dissertation motivates the need to account for state and local government budgets in macroeconomic fiscal policy. It shows that the contemporary macroeconomic fiscal policy literature overlooks the role of state and local government budgets. I argue that it is critical to fill this gap because of the significant impact state and local government budgets can have on overall fiscal policy. Chapter 2 investigates the behavior of state and local government budgets over business cycles from 1954 to 2015. It classifies each component of state and local government budgets as pro-cyclical, countercyclical, or non-cyclical. This analysis helps us see clearly which components of state-local government budgets have historically supported countercyclical fiscal policy and which have hindered it. Chapter 3 examines the effectiveness of state-local government capital spending as a countercyclical tool. Capital spending has the most potential for countercyclical purposes. This chapter identifies institutional and on-the-ground barriers to using capital spending for countercyclical purposes. Chapter 4 analyzes the role of state and local government spending in the most recent economic recovery from 2010 to 2015. State and local government spending has historically contributed to federal government recovery efforts. However, in the 2010 recovery, state and local government spending became a drag. Analyzing the state-local government slowdown during the 2010 recovery can help us identify the key factors that turned state-local government spending from a supportive source to a barrier. Chapter 5 develops policy proposals for state and local government countercyclical spending taking into account all the lessons from the previous chapters. I argue that the most promising areas for policy change are: 1) expanding federal government support; 2) reforming rainy day funds; 3) utilizing the capital budget; 4) loosening financial constraints; and 5) addressing political constraints.