Travel

Honolulu ranked one of the best cities... or is it?

Conde Nast Traveler Top 10 Cities versus Truth in Accounting

(David Mark)

Conde Nast Traveler (CNT) released its “The Best Cities in the U.S.: 2019 Readers' Choice Awards” this week. When comparing their list to Truth in Accounting's 2019 Financial State of the Cities (FSOC) list there is only one city that makes the top ten on both lists. TIA’s FSOC is a ranking of the fiscal health of the nation's 75 most populous cities based on fiscal year 2017 comprehensive annual financial reports. The study ranks the cities according to their Taxpayer Burden or Taxpayer Surplus™, which is each taxpayer's share of city bills or surplus after available assets have been tapped.

Washington, D.C. is ranked fifth on the CNT’s best cities list and it is ranked third on our Financial State of the Cities. D.C. is the only city on the CNT list that has a Taxpayer Surplus. D.C.’s Taxpayer Surplus is $3,300, which means the district could write a check to each taxpayer for $3,300. The other nine cities in CNT’s list have Taxpayer Burdens.

Minneapolis and San Antonio are the only two other cities on the list that are in the top half of TIA’s ranking but still have Taxpayer Burdens. Minneapolis is ranked 22nd with a Taxpayer Burden of $2,100. San Antonio is ranked 28th with a Taxpayer Burden of $3,200. The singer Prince was from Minneapolis. He had a net worth of $300 million at the time of his death, which could almost completely pay off Minneapolis’ debt.

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Boston, Pittsburgh, and New Orleans each ranked in the bottom 15 cities in the FSOC, but in the top 10 “best” cities according to Conde Nast. They have Taxpayer Burdens ranging from $12,000 to $17,800. In 1990, more than $500 million worth of paintings were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; $500 million would cover about15 percent of Boston’s debt.

Chicago, New York City, and Honolulu also made CNT’s top 10 list, but are among the worst fiscally managed cities in the nation. On the CNT list, Chicago is ranked as the top city to travel to, NYC is seventh and Honolulu is ninth. On TIA’s FSOC ranking these are three of the four lowest-scoring cities: Honolulu is 72nd, Chicago 74th, and New York in 75th place of the 75 largest U.S. cities. These cities each have a Taxpayer Burden of more than $20,000. In Honolulu, you can be fined for not owning a boat; maybe they can use this extra income for the $2.8 billion the city needs to pay its bills.

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CNT’s list focuses on travel and experiences in a city while our Financial State of the Cities focuses on the city’s debt. At the end of FY 2017, the total unfunded debt among the 75 most populous cities amounts to nearly $330 billion. The combined debt of the 10 cities on Conde Nast Traveler's list is $232.4 billion. This suggests that what travelers experience in a city may not correspond to the fiscal health of the city--or does it? Travelers may not mind paying higher taxes on purchases, transportation and accommodations because they are short-term. But perhaps the excessive debt in these popular cities is linked to spending by city governments to make their cities attractive, while short-changing long-term obligations, such as pensions for teachers, firefighters, and other government workers.

Kate Brennan is a social media and analytics intern for Truth in Accounting, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Chicago that researches government financial data.

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