RubinBrown Public Sector Stats 2016

Executive Summary

RubinBrown is a national leader in providing accounting and auditing services to governments with offices in St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver and Nashville. This study includes results for municipalities in the St. Louis, Kansas City and Denver Front Range metropolitan areas. Additionally, for the first time, cities throughout the state of Tennessee have been included in our survey. All cities included in the data have populations greater than 5,000. Additionally, the cities of St. Louis, Kansas City, Nashville, Memphis and Denver are excluded from the study due to their size relative to the other municipalities. Finally, for purposes of this study, metropolitan St. Louis includes municipalities in both Missouri and Illinois, and metropolitan Kansas City includes municipalities in both Kansas and Missouri. Denver results consist of municipalities primarily in the Front Range region. Tennessee municipalities are located throughout the state with the majority of them in middle Tennessee. Methodology Financial information was collected from the 2015 fiscal or calendar year Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), or from the 2015 audited financial statements if no CAFR was prepared. All municipalities included in the study prepare financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Key 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 use as an analysis tool. This year, participation in all three previously included regions remained consistent. A total of 41 St. Louis municipalities, 24 Kansas City municipalities and 31 Denver Front Range municipalities were included. First time participants included 32 Tennessee municipalities. Format of the Report The ratios are presented separately for the St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver and Tennessee regions. The average population of the cities included in the St. Louis region was 22,000. This compares to the average population of 47,000 for cities surveyed in the Kansas City region, 82,000 for those in the Denver region and 53,000 for Tennessee. For each ratio presented, the report presents information both by quartile with focus on the median. In prior years the focus was on the average. We determined that, although the results are different, the median is a better representation of the center of the results for each region and eliminates the distortion caused by any outliers. The computed values for each ratio were also sorted from more favorable to less favorable and quartiles were determined. The quartile information is presented by displaying the ratio value that separates each quartile. For a description and interpretation of the ratios, please refer to the “Financial Ratio Interpretations” on page 14. 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.

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