Financial Decoder

The Strong Towns Financial Decoder is a tool designed to help communities assess the true financial productivity of their land use patterns by evaluating a city’s overall budget and development patterns to determine whether current growth is fiscally sustainable. The purpose of the Decoder is to shift the focus from short-term growth to long-term fiscal health by highlighting the return on investment of different development styles. Insights from the tool can guide local governments toward more financially resilient, efficient, and sustainable urban planning decisions.

Click the following text to review the input data as well as city-provided sources. The graphs below summarize our findings for Madison:

Sustainability Indicators

Flexibility Indicators

Vulnerability Indicators