• Citizen's Guide to Michigan's Financial Health
For far too long the true state of Michigan's financial picture has been hidden by complex budget documents indecipherable to the average resident. One-time budget gimmicks and other accounting tricks have further masked the state's dire financial situation, allowing tough decisions to be pushed off into the future.

Gov. Snyder is working to change that by providing a citizen's guide to Michigan's financial health. This guide is a plain-English, easy-to-understand look at Michigan's financial situation and the challenges ahead.

Download the 2011 Citizen's Guide to Michigan's Financial Health
Download Appendix

• Tools for local government:
Governor Snyder encourages local units of government to follow the state's lead and make financial information more transparent and accessible to residents by using the same tools used to create the Citizen's Guide to Michigan's Financial Health.

These tools are fully customizable so each municipality may include special revenue funds specific to a local government and then generate easily understandable charts and graphs to create a report. These tools also allow municipalities to see how spending and revenue stacks up against other local units of government and the state.

Download the Chart Builder tool (Microsoft Excel 2007 File - updated July 15, 2011)
Download the Citizen's Guide template (Microsoft Word 2007 File)