LFC unveils interactive dashboard showing county fund balances and liquidity trends

The Legislative Finance Committee presented a new evaluation brief and an interactive dashboard designed to give legislators and the public easier access to county and municipal financial statements.

"Total governmental fund balances have increased by about a 140% in 2018 to 2024 or from 1,600,000,000.0 to 3,900,000,000.0," said Matt Goodlawn, a program evaluator for the LFC, summarizing the brief’s headline finding. He also reported that unassigned general fund balances increased roughly 290% over the same period, and explained the dashboard’s liquidity ratios—current, quick, and cash—to help compare counties and detect potential fiscal stress.

Elizabeth Dodson, a program evaluator who built the dashboard, demonstrated navigation (county selector, fund detail pages, assigned vs. unassigned balances, and ratio pages) and links to source audits. She said the first iteration will be updated alongside subsequent briefs and then annually as audits are released. "We'll update it annually thereafter with as the audits are released," Dodson said.

Members praised the tool but urged caution: Representative Gallegos said an annual snapshot can appear misleading if users do not account for restricted funds, committed capital projects, or debt service. Presenters said future pages will add revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balances and that they would coordinate outreach with county managers and associations to refine utility and context.

The dashboard is available on the Legislative Finance Committee website in the program evaluation dashboards; presenters said committee staff will circulate a hyperlink and brief instructional support for members.