Macomb County towns looking good on fiscal stability scores

Though many Macomb County communities have struggled with layoffs and millage increases to keep their budgets afloat since the Great Recession of 2008-10, a measurement of fiscal stability in communities across the nation shows that Macomb's cities and townships are in very good shape.

According to the stats collected by Munetrix, Macomb has four communities with perfect fiscal scores: Armada, Bruce, Macomb and Richmond townships.
The scores, reflecting a community's overall financial outlook, range from 0 (no risk) to 10 (imminent risk). These figures are based on 2013 findings while the 2014 tallies are still being completed. However, Shelby Township's '14 score is out and that community has moved from a 1 to a perfect 0 also.

Munetrix engages in the business of government transparency by collecting and publishing basic "dashboard" data for counties, cities, townships and villages throughout the U.S.  The result is a simple, searchable database for taxpayers.
They found that in 2013 the only Macomb communities with a score above 1 were Center Line and Roseville, both with a 2.
In contrast, many communities in Wayne County have scores of five or higher, with Detroit at 8 and the county itself at 9 (Macomb County is ranked 1). In Oakland County, most scores are quite good but Pontiac is a 6 and tiny Royal Oak Township is a 5.

In the booming community of Macomb Township, they have already earned their second straight perfect score with a 0 compiled for 2014. Of course, Macomb Township has 17 subdivisions under construction while its total taxable value nears $3 billion. As a result, the accumulated surplus for this town of 80,000 people is $24 million and growing.

According to the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), these fiscal indicator scores are designed to give a quick look at how a community is faring fiscally considering changing economic climates. The lower the score, the more fiscally stable; as the score increases, the probability for fiscal stress increases.
The system is “pass-fail” with 10 categories. If a community “passes” a given metric, they score a zero in that metric. If they fail, they are assigned a one. Add up the numbers in all 10 categories, and that is the fiscal score for that unit of government.
These are the 10 categories:

• population;
• taxable value growth;
• general fund expenditures as a percent of taxable value;
• operating results;
• prior one-year operating results;
• prior two-year operating results;
• size of available fund balance for one year;
• size of available fund balance for three years;
• major fund deficit; and
• debt as a percent of taxable value.