Experienced certified public accountant (CPA) Curtis L. Coonrod has served as the principal owner at his Indianapolis-based accounting firm, C. L. Coonrod and Company, since 1991. In this position, Curtis “Curt” Coonrod leads a team of accountants in areas of government accounting and budgeting.

Budgeting is a complex aspect of running a local government. Making a simple error or oversight in one aspect of a budget can lead to long-term negative results throughout various departments. While the size of a budget and key areas of spending vary from one municipality to another, there are a few commonalities among local government budgets.

According to reports from the Urban Institute, the majority of a local government’s resources are spent on education, health, and social service programming. A 2019 Urban Institute study that used data from census reporting found that approximately 33 percent of local and state government spending went to education, with 22 percent for elementary and secondary education and 9 percent supporting higher education.

Public welfare ranked as the single most common expenditure, at 22.3 percent. Popular examples of public welfare services include Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Spending on health and hospitals accounts for another 9.6 percent of the budget.

Other key areas of spending for local governments include highways and roads (6.1 percent), policing (3.7 percent), and corrections (2.5 percent).