Budget Explorer · City of Las Vegas

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of Las Vegas, on the same Census classification used for every city, county, and state in the Library — so the figures line up with peers rather than with the government's own budget book. Latest year: FY ending Jun 30, 2024. City of Las Vegas's own FY2027 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 656K residents

At a glance

Total revenue

$1.59B

$2,420 per resident

Total spending

$1.34B

$2,049 per resident

Spending per resident

$2,049

8th percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$564M

$860 per resident · 9th percentile of 70

Own-source share

49%

2nd percentile of 71

Capital share

30%

91st percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$1.59B total

Own-source revenue (taxes, charges, interest) versus aid from other governments. Utility and trust revenue are shown alongside general revenue but run on their own books.

Property tax$193M12%
Selective sales taxes$92M6%
License & other taxes$63M4%
Federal aid$71M4%
State & local aid$739M47%
Charges & fees$219M14%
Interest, fines, other$211M13%

Own-source share of general revenue 49% · federal aid 4% · property tax is 55% of taxes

Where it goes

$1.34B total

Current operations plus capital outlay, grouped by Census function. Interest on debt and transfers to other governments are broken out so they are not hidden inside services.

General government$335M25%
Public safety$318M24%
Transportation$203M15%
Transfers to other governments$174M13%
Environment & housing$173M13%
Culture & recreation$100M7%
Interest on debt$28M2%
Health & hospitals$14M1%
Public welfare$39K0%

Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸

Function	Category	Operating	Capital	Total
Fire protection	Public safety	$182M	$9.9M	$192M
Highways	Transportation	$42M	$140M	$182M
General public buildings	General government	$3.3M	$139M	$143M
Sewerage	Environment & housing	$87M	$51M	$139M
Parks & recreation	Culture & recreation	$78M	$22M	$100M
General (unallocable)	General government	$71M	$26M	$97M
Corrections (institutions)	Public safety	$67M	$8.8M	$75M
Judicial & legal	General government	$36M	$71K	$36M
Central staff services	General government	$33M	—	$33M
Protective inspection & regulation	Public safety	$27M	$25K	$27M
Financial administration	General government	$27M	$11K	$27M
Housing & community development	Environment & housing	$21M	$4.1M	$26M
Parking	Transportation	$16M	$5.7M	$21M
Police protection	Public safety	$18M	$3.0M	$21M

Trend · 3 fiscal years

Nominal dollars. The Census Bureau cautions that single-government series are edited only for aggregates — read direction, not decimals.

Revenue

+28% over 2 yrs

$1.24B → $1.59B

Spending

+29% over 2 yrs

$1.04B → $1.34B

Debt outstanding

+6% over 2 yrs

$532M → $564M

How it compares · 71 cities and counties in the Library

Percentile within the cohort on each place's latest Census year. Higher is not better — the last column says what a high reading means so you can decide whether it matters here.

Measure	City of Las Vegas	Cohort median	Percentile	Higher means
Spending per resident	$2,049	$3,741	8th	more spent per resident
Revenue per resident	$2,420	$3,548	18th	more raised per resident
Taxes per resident	$530	$1,328	4th	heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident	$860	$3,865	9th	more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue	49%	81%	2nd	less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue	4%	7%	32nd	more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending	30%	18%	91st	more building, less operating
Interest share of spending	2%	4%	19th	more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue	0.36×	1.05×	9th	more leveraged

About this data

Census classification categories, not this government's own budget structure. Figures are audited actuals for the fiscal year shown, not the adopted budget.
The Census Bureau edits unit-level data only to produce state and national aggregates and advises against reading it as a precise time series for any single government; treat year-over-year moves under ~5% as noise.
Employee-retirement-system revenue is excluded (published separately by Census). Utility and insurance-trust revenue are shown separately from general revenue.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (Individual Unit public-use files), unit 322003169988 (Las Vegas City). Retrieved 2026-09-07. Classification manual.

Spot an error, or know a better source for this place's adopted budget? Suggest an edit on the assessment.

Approved budget · FY2027

City of Las Vegas's own budget, in its own structure, read from its published budget book and checked against the total the document itself prints. This is the current year — more recent than the Census series above, but only comparable to this city's own history. Totals cover 28 departments.

$791M total

Police$233M29%
Fire$213M27%
Corrections$73M9%
Participant Recreation$35M4%
Other$34M4%
Municipal Courts$30M4%
Financial Administration$28M4%
Other Protection$24M3%
Parks$24M3%
Neighborhood Services$15M2%
Executive$12M2%
Culture & Recreation Administration$10M1%
All other (16)$60M8%

Parsed from the published budget book (pages 24-32) — General Fund, by function and activity.
Figures are checked against the total the document itself prints before publishing.
General Fund only; Nevada requires the same schedule for every fund, and the other funds run to another hundred pages.
Nevada calls the adopted document a final budget, distinguishing it from the tentative one filed earlier in the year.
The document is a scan that has been through text recognition, so some labels arrive split across lines.
Source: FY2027 Final Budget (Schedule B, General Fund) (published budget book), retrieved 2026-09-08. Open the source document.

Looking for how this fits City of Las Vegas's capacity to deliver? The fiscal dimension, binding constraint, and pathways live in the City of Las Vegas capacity assessment.