That is, if anyone can actually compile accurate financial information. The state controller hasn’t produced a consolidated financial report for K-12 school districts and community colleges since 2000. The most recent data available from the state controller’s other “Consolidated Annual Financial Reports,” for cities, counties, special districts and redevelopment agencies, concern the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2011, over two years ago. And if you want to match revenue coming from funding agencies – such as the federal and state government to local cities and counties, don’t expect the reported disbursements on the reports from the funding agencies to match the reported receipts from the receiving agencies.

These are among the findings of a new study released yesterday by the California Public Policy Center, after several months of wading through virtually every official source of consolidated financial data produced by state agencies, and after talking with dozens of financial professionals working in those agencies.

If you read the study, entitled “… Read More