In an ambitious, first-of-its-kind project, Reason Foundation has collected and parsed the
financial statements of all state and local governments across the United States that produce
this information and made this data publicly available. Users of this data will be able to
assess the fiscal health of state and local governments on an individual basis and in the
aggregate.
50 States + DC
with
$2.836 Trillion
in Total Liabilities
2,191 Counties
with
$566.3 Billion
in Total Liabilities
7,224 Municipalities
with
$1.209 Trillion
in Total Liabilities
8,672 School Districts
with
$1.086 Trillion
in Total Liabilities
This collection includes all state governments, and the overwhelming majority of American
counties, municipalities and school districts. Broadly speaking, the financial reporting of
state and local governments is comparable across jurisdictions because these entities follow a
uniform set of accounting standards established by the Government Accounting Standards Board.
However, certain exceptions exist wherein state governments have established their own unique
(and less comprehensive) accounting standards for local governments to follow. In these cases,
Reason Foundation has included notes within its data to indicate that a given entity’s data
does not conform to accounting practices generally accepted in the United States. In certain
other cases, government entities can become delinquent in financial reporting or, for
extremely small entities, may not produce financial reporting at all. Reason Foundation has
striven to include all entities with available financial statements and we solicit help in
procuring any we may be missing.
This website is a portal into the database we have compiled and allows users to view the data
in a variety of ways. For instance, information about government revenues, expenses, or debt
may be viewed in total or on a per-capita basis. Figures may be viewed cumulatively,
subdivided into a particular grouping of entity types (such as municipalities), or viewed on
an individual basis for the reporting entity. The tabs for “State,” “County,” City,” and
“School” allow the user to select any individual reporting entity on a map and view basic
balance sheet and income statement information for the selected entity. This Overview tab
contains information about state and local government finance in the aggregate, along with
some narrative explanation of what the charts and terms mean.
Dimensions Collected
States, Counties, & Municipalities
Balance Sheet
Net Pension Assets
Net OPEB Assets
Current Liabilities
Loans Outstanding
Notes Outstanding
Bonds Outstanding
Leases
Net Pension Liability
Net OPEB Liability
Total Liabilities
Capital Contributions
Income Statement
General Revenue
Operating Grants
Total Operating Revenues
Non-Operating Revenues
Revenues
Compensated Absences
Expenses
Change in Net Position
School Districts
Balance Sheet
Net Pension Liability
Net OPEB Liability
Total Liabilities
Income Statement
Revenues
Expenses
PLACEHOLDER TEXT...EXPLAIN VARIABLES COLLECTED AND BIT OF BACKGROUND ON STATE AGGREGATION
CHART BELOW
State Aggregation
Total Liabilities
PLACEHOLDER TEXT...SCHOOL DISTRICT BACKGROUND
Total Liabilities
Total Liabilities
Liabilities are monies currently owed for services already rendered or products already
purchased. The liabilities reported here therefore reflect the accumulation of debt-financed
spending by state and local governments. In general, liabilities result from spending in
excess of revenues. In some cases, however, liabilities may be fully or partially offset by
assets, such as an accumulation of cash deposited into a restricted debt services fund to
pay off a bond when it comes due.
It can be misleading, however, to compare total liabilities directly to the total assets
reported by a state or local government. That’s because liabilities represent financial
obligations that the government is required to pay while a sizable portion of reported
assets may be nonfinancial in nature because they reflect the value of physical
infrastructure like public roads or bridges. For instance, the City of Los Angeles in 2021
reported holding $18.987 billion in liabilities versus $18.448 billion in assets. However,
only $9.813 billion of those assets were financial in nature, meaning the city’s accumulated
liabilities were roughly twice as large as its financial assets.
Revenues
Expenses
During years in which spending exceeds revenues, liabilities generally can be expected to
grow. Debt financing costs, such as interest on a bond, are recognized as expenses and, as
these financing costs grow, they can crowd out a government’s ability to spend on other
items. However, the repayment of liabilities, such as the principal amount of a bond, are
not accounted for as an expense. Instead, repayment of liabilities is reflected on the
balance sheet only as a reduction in cash assets that were used to pay off the liability.
Since repayment of debt still reflects a use of cash even though it is not technically an
expense, highly indebted governments will need to devote a greater share of their revenues
toward debt than spending on public programs. Governments report the amount of debt that
will fall due within any given year as a “Current Liability.”
Current Liabilities
A government’s ability repay its debts on time can be approximated by determining whether
revenues exceed the sum of expenses and current liabilities. If:
Revenues – (Expenses + Current Liabilities) > 0,
then a government will be able to timely repay its debts. Practically, however, many
governments roll over their debts, such as by issuing new bonds to help them pay off bonds
falling due. As a government’s fiscal position deteriorates, so too will its ability to
secure new debt on favorable terms. In other words, if spending routinely exceeds revenues
and a government continues to roll over its debt, bond purchasers may charge higher
effective interest rates or may even refuse to provide any new financing.
Modified Revenues
Sources of Debt
County data produces negative values for Other Liabilities [
{
"name": "United States",
"Current Liabilities": 68681686914,
"Loans Outstanding": 5934686026,
"Notes Outstanding": 9233951765,
"Leases": 5299116109,
"Net OPEB Liability": 110563650195,
"Net Pension Liabiltiy": 129568199387,
"Other Liabilities": -329281290396,
"type": "County"
}
]
United States
State and local governments can accrue various types of debt. Reason Foundation has broken
the components of government debt into the following broad categories:
Current Liabilities signify the amount of accrued debt that
must be paid within 12 months of the issue date of financial statements. This includes any
long-term obligations like bonds that will fall due within the next financial year, but also
includes items like accrued employee payroll and vendor obligations that have not yet been
paid at the time the financial statements were issued.
Loans Outstanding signifies the balance due on loans from
a bank or other financial institution.
Notes Outstanding signifies the bonds the reporting entity
has issued and which are held by the investing public, including through financial intermediaries
such as a pension fund, wealth fund, or hedge fund.
Leases signifies the remaining amount of lease obligations
for buildings and equipment remaining across the lifetime of existing lease contracts.
Net OPEB Liability signifies the difference between the obligations
a government has already accrued for Other Post-Employment Benefits for employees (such as
retiree health care) and the money it has set aside to pay these benefits. As a net value,
it is not the total obligation toward Other Post-Employment Benefits—it is simply the unfunded
portion of this liability. Importantly, this value represents the contractual benefits that
employees have already earned as of the date of the financial statements and not the total
amount that a government will ultimately pay out in Other Post-Employment Benefits because
employees continue to accrue new benefits each year.
New Pension Liability signifies the difference between the
obligations a government has already accrued to offer pensions to existing pool of current
and retired employees and the money it has set aside to finance those pensions. Public-sector
pension plans may or may not include a cost-sharing component, in which a portion of employee
pay is withheld to make contributions to the pension fund. In jurisdictions without cost-sharing,
the government makes the entire contribution to the pension fund and pension fund assets
grow over time as they are invested. However, most governments are contractually obligated
to pay out defined liabilities regardless of amounts contributed or the earnings on investment
within a pension fund. The difference between the total assets held in a pension fund and
the future payments that fund will make to retired employees (discounted to the present)
is the net pension liability. As with the Net OPEB Liability, this value represents the amounts
employees have already accrued at the time of the financial statements, although employees
in jurisdictions with defined-benefit pensions will continue to accrue new pension benefits
each year.