The Center for Public Accountability promotes fiscal transparency and sustainability by providing financial data and analysis of California’s cities, counties and school districts, and offers a roadmap to sound governance for California’s local elected officials.
Tracks the financial health of California cities, counties and school districts. The interactive database allows users to track how elected officials are managing local budgets, support ongoing budget decision making and identify financial red flags. CPC’s dashboard uses public data from Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports (ACFR) that local governments are required to submit every year to get access to federal funds. The dashboard provides key financial metrics to allow local elected officials, analysts, reporters and citizens to understand how cities are performing overall and in comparison to other cities, and spotlight concerning financial trends.
Former California State Senator John Moorlach’s financial ranking report card provides rankings on how residents of across California are impacted by the financial standing of their cities, counties, and school districts. This is derived by dividing a city’s unrestricted net position — which reflects the available resources that the city can use for general purposes, such as public services, operations, and includes assets and liabilities — by their population. In addition, Moorlach also provides rankings on all 50 states.
Californians tend to be credit card debt-laden and don’t seem to mind adding more debt to their monthly financial commitments. That may be why they, as voters, do not flinch when Sacramento legislators put bond measures on the ballot. These propositions usually receive enough votes to succeed and permit the state to borrow more money….
There are several reasons for someone to run for public office. My journey set its own course, thanks to the nature of my previous occupation. As a certified public accountant, I would be asked to serve on nonprofit boards and invariably become the organization’s treasurer. So when I was asked to run for county treasurer,…
A quarter of a century ago, in conservative Orange County, two school bond measures were approved by voters, receiving more than two-thirds of the votes. This was something not seen in more than two decades. As the Orange County treasurer-tax collector at the time, many constituents were asking for my advice on such ballot measures,…
One of the fun components of reviewing annual comprehensive financial reports, which is a very time-consuming “hobby,” is when you see a trend that needs to be complimented. The ranking of Orange County’s 34 cities for the year ending June 30, 2023, was just released. When reviewing the rankings for the past seven years, there…
