How Do Cities Finance Projects?

On today’s show we are looking at how cities finance projects. We tend to think of funding decisions as being political. The truth is that cities do face real constraints on how they can spend money. This puts a real constraint on growth of a city as well.

There are many different types of financing that are possible at the municipal level. Certain types of debt are only suitable for some uses or project types and not for others. Today’s show is a deep dive into a few of the sources of funding cities use most often to finance improvements and growth. These types of financings are primarily located in the US. But they also exist in other locations as well.