While Boise is constantly topping “best of” lists and rankings, a different Idaho city secured the latest title.
WalletHub released its rankings Tuesday of the “Best- & Worst- Run Cities in America” and the results look similar to last year. Nampa and Boise secured the No. 1 and 2 spots this year, respectively, to claim the title of “best-run cities” in the country.
WalletHub looked at six categories to come up with the list: financial stability, education, health, safety, economy, and infrastructure and pollution. It looked at 150 of the largest cities in the U.S.
“How do we measure the effectiveness of local leadership? One way is by determining a city’s operating efficiency,” WalletHub said. “In other words, we can learn how well city officials manage and spend public funds by comparing the quality of services residents receive against the city’s total budget.”
When it comes to WalletHub’s “Quality of City Services” ranking, however, Nampa didn’t do so well. That score is based on the weighted average across all six of the metrics WalletHub looked at.
Nampa ranked 23rd overall for the quality of services, while Boise still ranked in the top five. Both cities ranked high when it comes to “Total Budget per Capita” rankings, though, with the No. 1 and 3 spots respectively.
Another metric that helped secure the cities’ high rankings was lowest long-term debt outstanding per capita.
It turns out Nampa has the lowest long-term debt outstanding per capita of cities ranked, according to WalletHub. Boise wasn’t far behind, ranking No. 3.
This isn’t the first time Boise and Nampa have ranked high in WalletHub’s study. Last year, the two cities were the best-run in the country, according to WalletHub. In 2017, Nampa was named the best-run city in America, and Boise was third. The same happened in 2018.
This year, the two Idaho cities were joined by Fort Wayne, Indiana; Nashua, New Hampshire; and Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky, in the top five for best-run cities, WalletHub said.
Coming in at 150 — the worst-run city — was Washington, D.C.
“This year has been a true test of the effectiveness of local leadership, as city leaders have had to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, including enforcing restrictions and helping to facilitate the distribution of the vaccine,” WalletHub said. “As new COVID-19 cases continue to drop, these leaders will be responsible for helping the transition back to normalcy go as smoothly as possible.”
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