A Key Role

In many instances, cities hire traditional analysts from diverse backgrounds to perform accounting, budgeting, and financial policy analysis- and still, they often need to hire consulting firms to conduct research. Economists have a competitive advantage over traditional analysts when it comes to forecasting revenue.1 This skill set can be leveraged to help accountants with tasks such as building the demographic and retail sales tables needed for the annual comprehensive financial report [ACER]. Because of this, many cities have already established an economic division or added duties that are traditionally performed by an economist. [...]the economics team at Wal-Mart informs the organization's staffing, stocking, and promotional decisions with time-series forecasting models.2 Economists at Google, Uber, Amazon, and other tech giants use the firms' vast troves of data to answer strategic questions regarding everything from marketing to budgeting and even anti-trust lawsuits. Unlike in 2018, in 2022, the citizens embraced the detailed information and voted âeuroœyes" to a use tax.3 [See Exhibit 1.] Since it was passed the city's sales tax revenue is anticipated to increase annually by $5 million.