Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Managing Budgets During Fiscal Stress: Lessons For Local Government Officials, Jeremy M. Goldberg, Max Neiman

McCarthy Center Student Scholarship

Like many local governments across the nation, cities and counties in California were impacted heavily by recent economic problems. This report examines what happened to local California government revenues during this period, which services have been adjusted, how employee benefits have been treated, and what innovations have been introduced.

The report is based on both a web-based survey of 245 California city government officials and face-to-face interviews with chief financial officers in most of the state’s major cities (Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Riverside, Pasadena and Los Angeles). The authors write, “There has always been much interest in the …