The city of Santa Clarita was recently ranked in the top seven percent of fiscally healthy cities by the California State Auditor. The California State Auditor’s website features an interactive dashboard that compares the fiscal health of over 420 cities based on 10 financial indicators. Santa Clarita received a low-risk designation and received perfect scores in the categories of liquidity, general fund reserves, pension obligations and in OPEB obligation receiving a total combined score of 92.17.

“The city of Santa Clarita continues to be fiscally healthy and well-prepared for any challenges that may arise,” said City Manager Ken Striplin. “Santa Clarita’s conservative budget practice keeps our community fiscally strong and allows us to regularly add new benefits and amenities for residents, such as the new Canyon Country Community Center and Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, which will be opening this fall.”

As part of the State’s high-risk local government agency audit program, the State Auditor aimed to identify cities that could be facing fiscal challenges by assessing their levels of risks using various financial metrics primarily found in each city’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for the Fiscal Year 2019-20. Some of these metrics included cash position/liquidity, debt burden, financial reserves, revenue trends, pension and OPEB obligations, among others.

Using information published by each city, the State Auditor placed high, moderate or low-risk designations on each city with regard to fiscal confidence. The analysis concluded with 12 cities receiving high-risk designations, while 196 cities received moderate and 215 cities received low-risk marks. The full analysis may be reviewed by visiting Auditor.CA.gov/local_high_risk/dashboard-csa.