Popular financial reports are reports distributed to citizens and other interested parties who lack a background in formal government financial reporting but who desire an overview of the government's financial status and activities. This paper examines the current state of local government popular financial reporting in the U.S. The results of a survey of large cities and counties indicate that 75 percent of these local governments have issued popular financial reports and that the types of reports and methods of distribution vary. Many of the reasons for providing popular reports relate to providing information and improving transparency and accountability by providing more user friendly financial reports. This paper concludes with a discussion on popular financial reporting in the context of government transparency and accountability, and offers a research agenda for continued study of the topic.

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There is an information gap between citizens and their governments when it comes to government finances. The inherent complexity of fiscal policy makes it exceedingly difficult for effective public participation. Effective public participation in fiscal decision making must address informing or educating the citizenry with accurate and meaningful government financial data. Better understanding citizen wants and perceptions is critical to closing the information gap between users and providers of financial information. This study uses information gathered from focus groups with residents of Norfolk, Virginia that asks what government financial information they want and how to make that information useful. Results suggest that citizens are interested in some types of information over others and that such information must be timely, made relevant and contextualized.

This research examines citizen acceptance of tolls and road pricing, and specifically focuses on determinants of the individual's expressed willingness-to-pay tolls to use a tunnel express lane that would be free of traffic delays. We answer the research question "What factors influence citizens' willingness-to-pay tolls" by empirically estimating a four factor model of willingnessto-pay: (a) direct benefit to the respondent; (b) relative cost over time; (c) community concern; and (d) political and environmental liberalism. We use data about citizen perceptions from the Life in Hampton Roads Survey, a survey of residents of Hampton Roads, Virginia. We find that willingness-to-pay is primarily driven and motivated by self-interest, through a balancing of benefit to cost relative to individual income and frequency of use. . In addition, concern for the community also contributes to willingness-to-pay tolls. The individual's perception of government's trustworthiness, a reflection of political and environmental beliefs, also influences the extent to which an individual is willing to pay tolls.