RubinBrown Public Sector Municipal Stats 2019

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Format of the Report Denver, Kansas City and St. Louis metropolitan areas presented their own ratios. Each ratio was sorted from most favorable to less favorable and presented by quartile to be used to rate your individual cities relative to others in the region. Presented also is three-year trend information to show prior results and associated increases and decreases over that time period. For a description and interpretation of the ratios, please refer to the “Financial Ratio Interpretations” section of the report (see page 15). The conclusions reached as to which results are more or less favorable are based upon what is most commonly accepted in the industry while taking into consideration what the majority of cities are likely to believe. Each statistic may be viewed differently or may be more or less meaningful based upon each city’s situation. For example, a small city may view a large amount of funding being spent on public safety as favorable, whereas our analysis places this in a less favorable quartile. In addition, per capita ratios may be affected adversely if a city serves a large non-resident population due to a significant daily influx of workers. Analysis The overall results of this year’s survey indicate that 2018 was another year of moderate growth in the financial health of cities in the St. Louis region and significant growth in the Denver and Kansas City regions. For all regions both net position and fund balances grew at a slightly faster pace than in past years. In 2018, on average, tax revenue per capita increased causing cities to rely less on intergovernmental revenues and other non-local revenue sources. The decreases in intergovernmental revenue ratios reflected this. Costs continue to rise and for most at a faster pace than revenues. Regardless of the challenges, most regions are operating at a healthy surplus on a government-wide basis as well as the general fund.

The RubinBrown Public Sector Services Group has an extensive public sector practice and is a leader in providing accounting and auditing services to state and local governments. As a special service to the communities we serve, we are thrilled to publish our thirteenth annual Public Sector Municipal Stats. The study includes municipalities in the Denver, Kansas City and St. Louis, metropolitan areas. All cities included in the data have populations greater than 5,000. Additionally, excluded from the study were the cities of Denver, Kansas City and St. Louis due to their size relative to the other municipalities. Finally, for purposes of this study, metropolitan Denver consists of municipalities primarily in the front range region, metropolitan Kansas City includes municipalities in both Kansas and Missouri and metropolitan St. Louis includes municipalities in both Missouri and Illinois. Methodology Financial information is from the 2018 fiscal or calendar year Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), or from audited financial statements if no CAFR was prepared. All municipalities included in the study prepare financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Eighteen financial ratios were calculated in three categories: government-wide (governmental activities only), governmental funds and general fund information. Each participant in the survey received customized financial statistics to benchmark against other cities and use as an analysis tool. This year, 32 Denver front range municipalities, 24 Kansas City municipalities and 41 St. Louis municipalities participated. The average population of the cities included in the St. Louis region was 22,000. This compares to the average population of 48,000 for cities surveyed in the Kansas City region and 83,000 for those in the Denver region. The average population for cities in all regions increased except for St. Louis, which remained the same.

In the analysis that follows, we examine the results for each metropolitan area in more detail.

Executive Summary

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