ABSTRACT
This chapter is the first step in conducting an all-inclusive analysis of local government revenues. In that regard, it provides a broad overview of the revenue systems of and money accessible to counties, municipalities, townships, special districts, and school districts. Referred to in this study as total revenue (TR), it consists of two basic components—own-source revenue (OSR) and intergovernmental revenue (IR). Based on an examination of these data reported at five-year internals by the U.S. Bureau of the Census in the Census of Governments for the 1962–2017 period, it is evident that local governments derive the largest proportion of their TR from OSR. In 1962, OSR constituted 71 percent of TR, but this proportion had declined to 64 by 2017. Over this same period, IR increased from 29 to 36 percent of TR.
