- 2017 Municipal Budgets (folder): Source Budget Docs
- SHACOG Municipality Budgets 2017.xlsx:
- Budget sheet with aggregate figures
- Census sheet with population and economic data
Each municipality had a different way of showing the breakdown of its revenues and expenditures. This meant I needed to create my own common standards to apply to all...
I decided to include ALL budgets and separate funds, not just general fund revenues in the data set. I made sure to include previous funds left over from the previous year as well. Here are the funds that were included:
- General
- Capital Projects
- Capital Improvements
- Sanitary Sewer
- Highway Aid (State Funds)
- Liquid Fuels Fund
- Parking Fund
- Park Fund
- Sinking Fund
- Street Lights Fund
- Library Fund
- Community Events Fund
First of all, interfund transfers were not considered "expenses" in this dataset. They were treated as such in the budget documents, but since I was adding across all funds this would have been double counting.
Expense breakdowns by category were even more complicated than revenues due to the various styles of departmental divisions!
I decided to simplify things and came up with categories based roughly on Baldwin Borough's interactive budget viewer. I also made my own minor adjustments...
For example: Swimming pool expenditures were usually listed under recreation but I thought it would be interesting to compare that separately. Conversely, Winter road maintainance was usually listed separately, but I chose to add it to public works spending.
- Buildings & Facilities
- Executive
- Administration
- Engineering & Inspections
- Solicitor & Legal Services
- Tax Collection
- Elected Officials
- Fiscal Agent Fees
- Financial Audits
- Finance Departments
- Legislative
- Publications
- Information Technology
- Parks Department
- Recreation Department
- Park Services
- Trees / Forestry
- Environmental
- Recreation Centers
- Community Centers
- Senior Citizen Centers
- Stadiums
- Tennis Courts / Golf Courses / Ice Rinks
- Fireworks
- Parades
- General Police Department
- Investigations
- Police Communications
- Traffic Enforcement
- Police Support
- DARE & Outreach Programs
- Police Vehicles & Equipment
- Public Works Department
- Maintenance of Roads & Bridges
- Street & Road Repairs
- Traffic Control Devices, Signals, Signs
- Street Lights
- Winter Snow / Ice Removal
- Storm Sewers & Drains
- Solid Waste Collection & Disposal
- Sewage Treatment
- Sewage Plants
- Recycling
- "Sanitary Sewer" Fund Expenditures
- Health & Sanitation
- Worker's Compensation
- Public Works Vehicles
- Equipment Maintenance
- Pension Contributions
- Insurance Payments
- Debt Servicing
- Emergency Dispatch
- Planning & Zoning
- Crossing Guards
- Animal Control
- Community Outreach
- Miscellaneous