About the Indiana Local Government Data

Budgets (or "appropriations") are adopted by local units of government and are subject to the adjustment and approval of the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF).

Geographic Coverage

• Indiana counties
• Indiana

Frequency

Annual

Timespan

2000-2005

Variables and Definitions

• Logodaba: abbreviated way to refer to Indiana's Local Government Database

• Appropriations: total expected spending from all funds by the local government for the budget year. Appropriations are divided among the following units:
  • Total (note that if a zero appears in the total appropriations fund, it is most likely that these data are missing from the database, not that there are no funds appropriated)
  • County
  • Township
  • City/Town
  • School
  • Library
  • Special Districts (includes solid waste management districts, transportation districts, fire protection districts, conservation districts, etc.)

• Maximum Levy Limitation: controls the amount of property tax levied by a county, placing a cap on the amount of revenue that can be generated by the property tax. Levies are in place for each county.

• Per Capita County: Budgeted amount of funds per person in a given county. Calculated be dividing total appropriations for the county by the county's population.

• Per Capita Appropriations: Budgeted amount of funds per person. Calculated by dividing total appropriations by the population.

Important Data Notes

Zeros: Zeros in the data can mean 1 of 3 things. (Note: The following list is taken directly from Purdue University analysis.)

1. The jurisdiction had no appropriation or revenue of that type.

2. The data are missing. Some jurisdictions do not report on time; some reports are not entered into the database on time. When zeros appear in the total appropriations or total revenues columns, it may be because the data are missing, not because the jurisdiction did not appropriate funds or raise revenues. A clue that missing data is the problem is where most other units of the type have non-zero appropriations or revenues (for example, where only one township has zero appropriations, the data are probably missing).

3. Cross-county jurisdictions. Some cities, towns and school corporations are located in more than one county. Property tax assessment and levy data can be divided among the jurisdiction's counties, but appropriations data cannot. All of a jurisdiction's appropriations will appear in its primary county. Appropriations in a jurisdiction's secondary county will be listed as zero.

Data Source

Indiana Department of Local Government Finance