I mean, so, right away, debt service is 17% of their budget. That should immediately be a red flag. Is it the end of the world? Of course not, but that's a non-trivial part of the budget that is dedicated to interest alone which strongly inhibits the ability for the city to borrow in an emergency situation.
Again, the issues that Strong Towns addresses is that the costs are not generally visible in the budgets, because they are on a cash accounting basis, and not an accrual accounting basis. There is no balance sheet in the traditional sense, and the spending on infrastructure is non-linear. So here, there is no depreciation of infrastructure in this budget except for city automobiles. The worry that Strong Towns is exactly that the depreciation and amortization expenses will overwhelm a budget when they come due.
Again, if I'm wrong, I want to know, but the entire point that Strong Towns illustrates is that these cash accounting based budgets, like this one, do not illustrate future liabilities in terms of ongoing revenues.
Again, the issues that Strong Towns addresses is that the costs are not generally visible in the budgets, because they are on a cash accounting basis, and not an accrual accounting basis. There is no balance sheet in the traditional sense, and the spending on infrastructure is non-linear. So here, there is no depreciation of infrastructure in this budget except for city automobiles. The worry that Strong Towns is exactly that the depreciation and amortization expenses will overwhelm a budget when they come due.
We know that the city has limited borrowing capacity from their most recent airport expansion, where they are giving up parking revenue to investors: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/devel...
Again, if I'm wrong, I want to know, but the entire point that Strong Towns illustrates is that these cash accounting based budgets, like this one, do not illustrate future liabilities in terms of ongoing revenues.