State auditor unveils new tool to help communities' monitor finances

Staff report

COLUMBUS

State Auditor Dave Yost unveiled a new look at local governments’ financial books, with hopes officials will use the information to make changes before they face budgetary crises.

The goal of the financial health indicators is to help county and city governments anticipate areas of potential fiscal difficulty before it’s too late to address them.

A quick look at the results for Mahoning and Trumbull counties and several area cities revealed most fared well under the new financial-ratings system.

“The changes you make in a budget and your revenue and your spending, your cost structures, your debt structures, those things are all things where if you have more time to do them, they have much more limited impact on services and citizens,” Yost said.

Yost, a Republican running in 2018 for attorney general, announced the fiscal tool Wednesday during a news conference at the Statehouse.

Over the past five years, his office pinpointed 17 indicators, identified as part of local governments’ financial books, that could be checked to determine the financial health of a city or county.

Read more about the program in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.