Fiscal Health for Local Governments An Introduction to Concepts, Practical Analysis, and Strategies

"Honadle, Cigler and Costa have done an excellent job of pulling together a diverse and complex literature on the fiscal health of local governments. This book is a wealth of information for both students of local public finance and local government administrators and elected officials. The methods they outline are rooted on theory, yet have direct practical application." Steven Deller, Professor and Community Development Economist, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA "Fiscal Health for Local Government provides a pragmatic approach for analyzing the fiscal health of local governments. It presents several models for assessing expenditures, revenues and debt within the constructs of changing economic, demographic and political conditions, evolving intergovernmental patterns, and specific legal constraints. The book will be a useful guide for a wide audience including government officials, policy analysts and students of public administration and public finance. It will also be a welcome resource for courses in Fiscal Policy and Administration." Marilyn Rubin, Professor, Economics and Public Administration, John Jay College, City University of New York This examination of the fiscal health of local governments offers a "how-to" approach to identifying and solving financial problems. 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. The book stems from the "Fiscal Health Education Program," an applied economics program at the University of Minnesota. It uses three measures of fiscal healthfinancial condition, trend analysis, and financial trend monitoring systemas 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. Beth Walter Honadle, Director, Center for Policy Analysis & Public Service, and Professor, Political Science, Bowling Green State University James M Costa, Vice President, Corporate and Investment Banking, Suntrust Bank, Atlanta Beverly A. Cigler, Professor of Public Policy and Administration, Director, Pennsylvania Program to Improve State and Local Government, Penn State HarrisburgHonadle, Beth Walter is the author of 'Fiscal Health for Local Governments An Introduction to Concepts, Practical Analysis, and Strategies', published 2003 under ISBN 9780123547514 and ISBN 0123547512.