Fiscal Health Project

CLOSUP launched its Fiscal Health Project in 2019 to develop a deeper understanding of the challenges that local governments face in collecting, using, and interpreting fiscal data, and to promote greater transparency and earlier detection of fiscal stress. Fiscal health is critical because it underlies the ability of local governments to provide public services—from economic development to public safety, social welfare, clean water, and more.

CLOSUP’s holistic approach combines local officials’ insights and responses to its annual Michigan Public Policy Survey regarding fiscal health, along with administrative data collected by the state and its local jurisdictions to explore research questions such as:

How do local officials assess their fiscal health, and how are their assessments related to various aspects of fiscal health, including budget balancing, service delivery, infrastructure, and retiree pensions/healthcare?
How do local officials’ assessments compare to measures of fiscal health derived from financial and economic data? To the extent that they disagree, what accounts for the difference?
Are there systematic differences between governments that report higher levels of stress versus lower levels of stress?

Michigan local governments face ARPA spending challenges with inflation and supply chain issues

New Report

The Fiscal Health of Michigan Local Governments 2023

Using financial data reported to the State of Michigan in 2023, this report analyzes local government data to develop a set of indicators to look at cash, budgetary, long-term, and service solvency for counties, cities, villages, and townships in Michigan. It finds that there were few significant changes in overall trends for the fiscal health of Michigan local governments compared to the past few years.

Read the report

XBRL

Modernizing State and Local Government Fiscal Transparency

CLOSUP, along with its nonprofit partner XBRL US, has launched a project to modernize and digitize state and local government financial reporting, with the City of Flint as the first local government partner and pilot site.

Learn more

Project summary

Stephanie Leiser: Helping local goverments in Michigan become healthier and more resilient

Sep 7, 2021| 03:32

<p>Stephanie Leiser, lecturer in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, discusses the Local Fiscal Health Project, an initiative of the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy to help local governments navigate fiscal challenges.</p>

Watch the video

Featured video from Stephanie Leiser: Helping local goverments in Michigan become healthier and more resilient

MPPS

Learning from local government leaders

The Fiscal Health Project was born out of the Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS), which has been tracking important aspects of Michigan local fiscal health since 2009, including revenues, expenses, employee and retiree policies, debt, economic conditions, and more. This research led CLOSUP to commit to address the wide variety of significant fiscal health challenges faced by Michigan local governments, through the Fiscal Health Project.

Learn More

People sharing a public space with greenery, tables, umbrellas, and open space

During the COVID-19 crisis, CLOSUP partnered with public finance experts from universities, consulting firms, and research institutions from around the state to produce fiscal strategy guides and memos for Michigan's local governments.

The Michigan Public Policy Survey produces annual reports on Michigan local government leaders’ assessments of their jurisdictions’ fiscal conditions and the actions they plan to take in the coming year given their financial situations.

See all reports

Case studies conducted by student policy analysts at CLOSUP, comparing fiscal conditions and experiences of Michigan communities.

See all case studies

The fiscal health of local governments is critically important to the functioning of our democracy, economy, and quality of life. In turn, high-quality easily-accessible financial data are essential to promote fiscal health, as well as transparency and data-driven policymaking.