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I have nothing to add to this appalling situation that hasn't been said, but I will note something that is very much in my wheelhouse.
A little thread on local public spending and functional responsibilities.
A little thread on local public spending and functional responsibilities.
If you're examining local police spending, take extreme care in comparing cities. The share of municipal spending on policing may be extremely misleading depending on what public services cities are tasked with conducting (functional responsibilities).
For instance, the share of police spending in Chicago or NYC will be smaller than in Atlanta because public schools are bundled with other city spending in CHI or NYC but handled by an independent school district in ATL.
There are basically two ways around this.
1. Use the county-area data from the Census of Governments. This collapses all local governments into one county-level unit. Unfortunately, Census has removed these data from their website (I'm checking on what happened).
1. Use the county-area data from the Census of Governments. This collapses all local governments into one county-level unit. Unfortunately, Census has removed these data from their website (I'm checking on what happened).
2. Use the @landpolicy's Fiscally Standardized Cities data. This uses a similar methodology to the Census county-area data, but is focused large city boundaries. https://www.lincolninst.edu/research-data/data-toolkits/fiscally-standardized-cities
Both have drawbacks, but both recognize that overall local public service delivery is highly fragmented so looking at one local govt gives you a somewhat biased view of all local spending.
And this is really important! Because most (urban) areas have a lot of individual local govts, it can be difficult to get a handle on whether your preferences for a certain kind of spending are being satisfied. Just looking at your city is rarely enough.
