WalletHub Ranks Aurora 18th Best-Run City in America
In a study conducted by finance website Wallet Hub, the city of Aurora has been ranked as one of the Top 20 Best-Run Cities in America. Overall, Aurora ranked 18th among 150 of the country’s largest cities.
“In this last year of my third and final term as mayor, I can look back with so much pride at how far we have come as a city in 12 years,” said Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner. “We have worked very hard to increase our quality of services while remaining fiscally responsible. We have made it a priority to hire top-notch staff and appoint knowledgeable volunteers to committees and commissions — people who genuinely care about the future of Aurora. Certainly, we have much more to do, but this study is further proof that people, locally, regionally and nationally, are seeing Aurora in a whole new light.”
To identify the cities that are managed well by their leaders, WalletHub’s analysts compared 150 of the largest U.S. cities across six key dimensions, including financial stability, education, health, safety, economy as well as infrastructure and pollution. These categories were then combined to construct an “Overall City Services” ranking.
“A well-run city isn’t just the product of efficient budgeting or well-supplied coffers. It is the fruit of countless other decisions, financial or otherwise, that are made on behalf of the public’s best interest,” said Wallet Hub officials.
| Overall Rank | City | ‘Overall City Services’ Rank | ‘Total Budget per Capita’ Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boise, ID | 2 | 2 |
| 2 | Nampa, ID | 58 | 1 |
| 3 | Provo, UT | 9 | 3 |
| 4 | Missoula, MT | 28 | 4 |
| 5 | Fort Wayne, IN | 32 | 5 |
| 6 | Lexington-Fayette, KY | 27 | 6 |
| 7 | Billings, MT | 23 | 7 |
| 8 | Bismarck, ND | 1 | 19 |
| 9 | Sioux Falls, SD | 5 | 16 |
| 10 | Nashua, NH | 11 | 14 |
| 11 | Oklahoma City, OK | 81 | 8 |
| 12 | Las Cruces, NM | 48 | 11 |
| 13 | Lewiston, ME | 59 | 13 |
| 14 | Huntington Beach, CA | 3 | 50 |
| 15 | Albuquerque, NM | 72 | 10 |
| 16 | Fargo, ND | 6 | 47 |
| 17 | Lincoln, NE | 12 | 33 |
| 18 | Aurora, IL | 24 | 21 |
| 19 | Raleigh, NC | 19 | 34 |
| 20 | Charleston, SC | 26 | 24 |
Methodology
In order to identify the best-run cities in America, WalletHub’s analysts compared 150 of the most populated cities across six key categories: 1) Financial Stability, 2) Education, 3) Health, 4) Safety, 5) Economy and 6) Infrastructure & Pollution.
WalletHub evaluated these categories using 25 relevant metrics. Each metric was graded on a scale from 0 to 100, with 100 representing the most optimal city management.
WalletHub then calculated “Overall City Services” scores using the weighted average across all metrics. Finally, WalletHub divided the Overall City Services score by the “Total Budget per Capita” dollar amount for each city in order to construct a Score per Dollar Spent index, which was then used to rank the cities.
SOURCE: City of Aurora news release, WalletHub website
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