Project was Initiated in the 1996 Legislative Session

• Federal funding support was expected to decrease 
• State role in supporting local government services was expected to increase
• State policymakers wanted to learn more about local government services and finances
• Looked to State Auditor Office's Budgeting, Accounting and Reporting System (BARS) as potential source of needed financial information

• State Auditor's Office (SAO);
• County and city associations;
• Local government administrators;
• Local government finance officers; and
• Legislative staff

• Rolled up BARS detail into subject areas used for state budgets
• Resolved issue of double-counting between local government entities (refer to the About the Data – Double-counting section of this web site for more information)
• Identified reporting anomalies and followed up with entities to resolve
• Created a data structure for 1990 through 1995
• Worked with OFM and other project stakeholders to combine state and local data on a comparable basis

• Published comparisons of county, city, and state expenditures and revenues
• Validated BARS as a source for summary level local financial data
• Recommended steps to increase reliability and timeliness of BARS data
• Recommended additional data to increase value of BARS data
• Recommended a reporting system to increase access to information

• Increased reliability of BARS data through increased user training and refined data edit processes
• Increased access to information through use of internet technology
• Publication of update to the original study
• Limited success incorporating additional data and improving timeliness

• Addition of capital project data to the Local Government Financial Reporting System (LGFRS)
• Addition of enterprise fund data to LGFRS
• Addition of other local governments where feasible (transit, port, library, and fire districts)
• More consolidated view of government services on the LEAP Local Government Finance Study (LGFS) web site by adding:
  • Capital projects and enterprise funds;
  • Capital expenditures; and
  • Local school districts and transit districts.
• Added context-sensitive links on the LGFS website to related information.
• Pilot projects proving the value of combining contextual (non-financial) data with state and local financial data 
• Increased visibility and reliability of data reported in BARS

• Annual updates of both the detail SAO local government website (LGFRS) and the LEAP summary website (LGFS)
• Refinement of transit data to ensure data consistency and comparability
• Addition of port district data
• Continued efforts to increase the visibility and improve the reliability of data reported in BARS

• The Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of Washington State should promote better coordination, collection, and reporting of state and local financial and contextual data in ways that support consolidated, seamless views;
• The Office of Financial Management and the State Auditor’s Office should assure alignment and consistency of data across governments as changes to financial reporting and underlying charts of accounts take place;
• To encourage greater accessibility and use, the web sites that present state and local data should be given broad exposure; and
• Given the increasing interest in combined views of state and local data, the Legislature should designate a more stable funding source for state and local data coordination, collection, and reporting.