Fresno City Hall image via wikipedia user Nightryder84

Fresno ranks 5th in America for taxpayer surpluses in a new study.

The data was released on Tuesday by Truth in Accounting (TIA), a Chicago-based think tank that analyzes government finance reporting. TIA drew the data from the latest audited comprehensive annual financial reports on file in city halls across the country.

The study defined a taxpayer surplus by hypothetically dividing surplus cash by the estimated number of taxpayers in the city.

Irvine, California, claimed the best finances in the U.S. with a $377 million fiscal surplus, meaning it could cut a $4,400 check for each of its taxpayers.

In total, 75 of the largest cities in the country were looked at in the “2019 Financial State of the Cities” report, with 12 being found to have surpluses. Meanwhile, the remaining 63 cities were found to have varying levels of deficits.

The worst of these was New York City, which had a taxpayer burden of $64,100.

Fresno has a $418.6 million fiscal surplus, with a surplus of $2,500 dollars per taxpayer.