How each page is built.

Sources

Where the data comes from.

Census Bureau. The Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, individual unit files. The newest survey is used for every government in it; governments not sampled that year use the 2022 Census of Governments, and the page labels that year.

Governments’ own reports. Where a government has published newer audited figures, such as Florida cities’ annual financial reports, those replace the Census figures and the Census record is kept as a cross-check.

Federal grants. White House Office of Management and Budget, Historical Tables 12.1 and 12.3, for national totals and what the grants pay for.

Fiscal years

Latest year on record.

Each government shows its newest fiscal year on file, and the page writes out the date that year ended. Governments close their books on different dates, so years differ from one government to the next. A Census survey year covers fiscal years ending from July of the year before through June of the survey year.

Categories

How money is grouped.

Where it comes from: the government’s own taxes, fees for services (with its own examples), federal tax money, state tax money, county and local tax money, and fines and other income. Money from other governments is kept separate by level so federal and state dollars are never blended.

Where it goes: spending by purpose, such as schools, safety, health and welfare, roads and transit, and money sent on to local governments. Money a state passes to a city shows up in the city’s budget as state aid, so it is never counted twice on one page.

Comparisons

What stands out.

Each government is compared with the median of similar governments (for example, cities of 50,000 people or more, or the 50 states). The category where it differs most is shown as a fact, with at least a 3-point gap before we mention it.

Honest gaps

When data is incomplete.

Missing values are left out, never shown as zero. Census estimates are labeled. Pages for governments with incomplete or estimated figures stay off search engines until they can be strengthened.