The knowledge-interest context of local public finance: Judgments of city finance officers

Abstract

A potential constraint on local public finance decision making is the distribution of knowledge of, and interest in, public finance issues within a community. Since city finance officers occupy strategic positions in local government and politics an understanding of their assessments of the local knowledge-interest context is preliminary to financial management capacity building initiatives. This article considers the judgments of seventy Ohio city finance officers on the level of local government finance knowledge and interest in their communities. Alternative explanations for variation in judgments on the knowledge-interest context are tested. While little variation is explained by aggregate city characteristics, local financial management professionalism, or city government structural arrangements, variables related to city specific political factors do tend to have considerable explanatory power.