A Look At The Financials of Major Cities
In an effort to discover the underlying workings of cities I have gone through the financials of a wide variety of cities to discover some interesting patterns.
by Quinton on March 22nd, 2013
Let me first state, my goal is to develop a city that really provides nothing. The only reason there is a need for a city is because within the current framework of our world I think it would be much easier to start a free society with property you own as opposed to property owned by the state. The goal of a city is to allow for a free society to develop. The city doesn't need to provide anything. All services can be provided privately through the free market. On to the numbers...
Cities
The cities I am looking at are:
Boston, MA http://www.cityofboston.gov/Images_Documents/CityBoston-CAFR-612_tcm3-35...
Phoenix, AZ http://phoenix.gov/webcms/groups/internet/@inter/@dept/@fin/documents/web_content/092464.pdf
Ottawa, ON https://ottawa.ca/sites/ottawa.ca/files/migrated/files/cap214801.pdf
Scottsdale, AZ http://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/Assets/Public+Website/finance/Archive/FY+201...
New York City, NY http://www.comptroller.nyc.gov/bureaus/acc/cafr-pdf/CAFR2012.pdf
Los Angeles, CA http://contact.lacity.org/controller/LACITYP_024494.pdf
Las Vegas, NV http://www.lasvegasnevada.gov/files/FY2012_CLV_CAFR.pdf
Frankfort, KY
Each city is picked for a specific reason. I am trying to have a variety of different types.
Boston, MA 2012
Here are the numbers for Boston, MA.
Revenue
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Taxes: | $1,841,355 |
| Operating Grants: | $574,653 |
| Charges for services: | $210,260 |
| Grants not restricted: | $188,895 |
| Capital grants: | $35,337 |
| Investment: | $13,575 |
| Misc: | $7,084 |
| Total: | $2,871,159 |
So check this out. The greatest source of revenue is taxes. If you read through their document you will find that over 1/2 of their tax revenue comes from property tax. I find that very interesting. Property tax generates over 1/2 of all the revenue for Boston.
Expenses
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Schools: | $1,369,047 |
| Public safety: | $817,768 |
| Property and dev: | $114,753 |
| Public works: | $110,187 |
| General gov: | $108,499 |
| Public health: | $73,975 |
| Human services: | $48,103 |
| Library: | $44,526 |
| Interest on debt: | $39,798 |
| Parks and rec: | $34,651 |
| Hospital: | $2,523 |
| Convention center: | $0 |
| Total: | $2,763,830 |
Moving on to expenses you will find that schools is the greatest expense. Right off the bat you can wipe that out in a free society. That can be handled privately. #2 is public safety, which is police and prisons and things of this nature. Again, this can all be handled privately. In fact, if you look at everything in here it can be handled privately except, perhaps, general government. Let me explain...
Phoenix, AZ 2012
Revenue
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Charges for services: | $1,266,544 |
| Excise taxes: | $722,998 |
| Operating grants: | $358,692 |
| Grants not restricted: | $297,342 |
| Capital grants: | $274,168 |
| Other taxes: | $221,390 |
| Other: | $92,653 |
| Total: | $3,233,787 |
Expenses
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Public safety: | $850,636 |
| Aviation: | $435,675 |
| Transportation: | $421,680 |
| Water services: | $361,751 |
| Community enrichment: | $245,713 |
| Community Dev: | $218,847 |
| Wastewater services: | $178,258 |
| Solid waste: | $133,414 |
| Interest on debt: | $109,412 |
| Phoenix Convention Center: | $103,420 |
| General gov: | $88,178 |
| Environmental services: | $42,326 |
| Criminal justice: | $36,345 |
| Golf courses: | $8,879 |
| Total: | $3,233,892 |
New York City, NY 2012
Revenue
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Taxes: | $41,982,497 |
| Operating grants: | $18,768,706 |
| Charges for services: | $4,600,078 |
| Other: | $980,491 |
| Other Fed and state aid: | $730,310 |
| Capital grants: | $594,313 |
| Investment income: | $117,608 |
| Total: | $67,774,003 |
Expenses
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Education: | $24,957,901 |
| Public safety & judicial: | $17,077,117 |
| Social services: | $14,181,836 |
| General gov: | $4,101,933 |
| Environmental protection: | $3,456,151 |
| Debt interest: | $2,931,953 |
| Transportation: | $2,536,846 |
| Health: | $2,419,857 |
| Parks & Rec: | $1,077,230 |
| Housing: | $1,327,674 |
| City University: | $954,590 |
| Libraries: | $243,470 |
| Total: | $75,266,558 |
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Okay, so a city is really just a business with multiple people running it. There is a big distinction that needs to be made with the way we run cities right now. Decisions in cities right now are handled by residents who vote for people to represent them. When we want something done in a city we try to get involved by electing people to do certain things. In a business the way things get done is people spend their money on things that they like. What I'm trying to say is that a business gets their votes from money while a city gets their votes not from money, but from people speaking. [move to own blog post]
So we are probably going to need
Filed under: Location, CitySite Statistics
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