Fiscal Health for Local Governments offers a how-to approach to identifying and solving financial problems. Its principal selling point lies in its assumptions: instead of using the vocabulary and research agendas of economist, finance scholars, and political scientists, it will appeal to readers who lack sophisticated knowledge in these areas and nevertheless need practical advice.

The book stems from the Fiscal Health Education Program, an applied economics program at the University of Minnesota. It uses three measures of fiscal health — financial condition, trend analysis, and financial trend monitoring system — as the basis for advocating particular fiscal strategies.

The book examines the tools that can be used to assess the condition of a local government's fiscal health and some of the policy causes or remedies for certain situations, as well as some of the strategies governments can pursue to maintain and improve health.

It will serve as a primer for readers interested in understanding financial processes and alternatives, and as a practical guide for those who need access to fiscal measurement tools.

• How-to approach will appeal to readers who lack sophisticated knowledge
• Contains discussion questions and anonymous case studies of actual cities and municipalities
• Presents practical methods for identifying and solving common fiscal problems

• Frontmatter 2
• 1 Introduction and Overview 18
  • Scope of the Book and Audience 19
  • Factors Affecting Local Government Fiscal Health 22
  • The Fiscal Manager's Situation 27
  • Summary 1 29
  • A Fiscal Capacity Framework 29
  • Discussion Questions 1 31
  • References 1 32
• 2 Fiscal Health Literature: Drifts and Reflections 34
  • What Is Fiscal Health? A Look at the Terminology 34
  • Influences on Fiscal Health Revisited 39
  • Measuring Fiscal Health 41
  • What Governments Do About Fiscal Problems 48
  • Conclusion 2 50