The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated economic downturn are impacting the lives of Californians daily. The economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is actively changing how households go about their daily tasks: working, shopping, commuting, visiting friends and family, taking care of their health, attending school, and many other areas of life. These in turn affect commute patterns, labor force composition, and potentially housing and migration decisions.
Local governments and agencies have been tasked in both keeping people safe and trying to keep local economies running.
- How are local agencies managing this balance?
- How is COVID-19 affecting budgets?
- Are local governments forced to make difficult choices about expenditures?
- Which revenue streams have been most affected by the pandemic?
- How are transportation agencies and public works departments coping with the sudden changes in demand?
- How are school district finances faring in response to the pandemic?
To answer these types questions, this project has launched a Fiscal Survey of Local Agencies throughout the counties in the Bay Area and Central Valley. The audience for the survey is leaders on financial and budgetary matters at local agencies, including budget officers, city managers, county administrators, transportation and public works department directors, school district finance directors, among others who have a view on the ongoing fiscal impact of COVID-19 on local agencies.
This survey is being conducted by a team of researchers from UC Davis (Center for Regional Change), University of Southern California (Price School of Public Policy), and Occidental College. It is part of a three-year project that seeks to understand how local government financial health is related to demographic change and commuting patterns.
We will be conducting this survey periodically over the next three years to understand the ongoing toll of the economic downturn associated with COVID-19 and the fiscal responses of local governments. We will summarize the survey’s findings in a series of fiscal health “temperature checks” on our project website and related reports. We believe these survey results will prove useful to you and your colleagues from throughout California as you seek innovative strategies for managing fiscal stress and supporting your communities through difficult times.
You can read a summary of the first round of the survey in this Cal Matters guest commentary. A more detailed overview is available under the Fiscal Survey Result tab.
The second round of the survey has been expanded to include the entire state. Please, visit our dedicated site here.
The larger research project is supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Learn more under the About page.
If you are interested in learning more about the survey or its outcomes, please contact us here.