Local Government Finances from 1992 to Present

On May 16, 2018 usgovernmentspending.com added access to the spending and revenues of the tens of thousands of local governments -- counties, cities, special districts and school districts -- in the United States.

Local government finance data for individual local government units is published by the US Census Bureau in so-called "Individual Unit Files" and is available from 1992 to the present, with gaps from 1993-94 and 2007-11. Data for the missing years has been estimated by usgovernmentspending.com.

Users can access this local government finance data in three ways.

1. Local Rank page, that lists the top local governments by spending or by revenue.
2. Local Detail page, that lists spending or revenue details for each local government.
3. Local Chart page, that provides a multi-year chart of spending or revenue for each local government.

Given that there are tens of thousands of local governments in the US, the question is how to access a particular city, or county, or special district. There are two ways:

1. Go to the Local Rank page. Then switch to the rank you want: city, county, district or school. If the government is on the list then click on the "chart" or "detail" link. If the government is not on the list then go to the bottom of the list and select the state the government is in. Then select the government using the drop downs.
2. Go to the Local Detail or Local Chart page. Then select the state and the city/county/district/school.