Assessments of Municipalities’ Fiscal Health: Comparative Analysis of State Online Dashboard Systems

Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online June, 2023

Assessments of Municipalities’ Fiscal Health: Comparative Analysis of State Online Dashboard Systems

and

Volume 22, Issue 2https://doi.org/10.37808/pfm.22.2.1

Abstract

This research provides a comparative analysis of eight state online dashboard systems that track and assess fiscal health of local governments in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Washington, and Utah. The eight chosen states represent a population of states that both monitor local government fiscal health and run an online dashboard system The goal of this article is to offer practical guidance for practitioners on states’ online dashboard systems used to assess municipal fiscal health and provide a list of top best practices. Specifically, we address such questions as (1) who should administer the online dashboard systems, (2) what financial indicators should be present, (3) what environmental factors should be incorporated, (4) how many years of prior financial data should be included, (5) what financial stress risks should be accounted for, (6) what supplementary resources for use of systems should be present, and (7) which entities should collaborate in establishing and managing online dashboard systems.

Keywords

online fiscal dashboard system fiscal resources fiscal health financial indicators state municipality

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