The district's own liquidity KPI — how many days it could keep paying the bills on cash on hand — computed across the large Iowa districts, FY2015–FY2026 · June 2026
What it is: Iowa City tracks a "Day's Net Cash Ratio" on its own financial dashboard. It answers the most concrete liquidity question — how many days the district could carry expenditures without any new cash coming in.
The recommended range is 90–120 days (shaded green). That is the district's own target (90 days) and reflects Iowa's seasonal property-tax timing — districts receive tax money in big lumps in fall and spring, so they need a larger buffer than GFOA's general ~60-day floor (gray line) to bridge the gap.
| Fiscal year | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| District dashboard | 67 | 84 | 88 | 79 | 63 |
| Our calculation | 67 | 84 | 88 | 79 | 63 |
Iowa City sat inside or near the 90–120 recommended band a decade ago (peaking at ~88 days in 2017), then fell steadily out of it. Its most recent actual year, FY2025, sits at ~33 days — about a third of the recommended minimum, and below even the 60-day GFOA floor — while large-district peers have generally stayed at or above the band (peer average ~87 days). The dashed FY2026 point is the projected operating cushion — ~7 days, a cliff.*
*Why FY2026 drops to ~7 days. This metric measures days the district can carry expenditures without a cash infusion. The district's headline projection looks healthier (~37 days), but only because it counts a planned $25M revenue-anticipation warrant plus a $10M interfund loan as cash on hand. Excluding that borrowing — as the metric's own definition requires — PFM's projected June 30, 2026 operating balance is $4.4M ≈ 7 days, which PFM states is "not sufficient to cover July 2026 payroll."
| District | Year | Day's Net Cash Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Davenport CSD | FY2025 | 144 |
| Pleasant Valley CSD | FY2025 | 124 |
| Des Moines Independent CSD | FY2025 | 115 |
| Waukee CSD | FY2025 | 106 |
| Ankeny CSD | FY2025 | 106 |
| Cedar Rapids CSD | FY2025 | 93 |
| Dubuque CSD | FY2025 | 92 |
| West Des Moines CSD | FY2025 | 86 |
| Linn-Mar CSD | FY2025 | 78 |
| Johnston CSD | FY2025 | 65 |
| Iowa City CSD | FY2025 | 33 |
| Waterloo CSD | FY2025 | 24 |
| College CSD (Prairie) | FY2025 | 6 |
Green ≥ 90 (in range) · amber 60–90 · red < 60. Latest year shown per district (peers audited FY2025); Iowa City shown at its latest actual year (FY2025, unaudited), not its FY2026 projection.
This is the intuitive "days" view. To see it next to how the credit-rating agencies score the same liquidity — reserves and net cash as a percent of revenue — see Three liquidity lenses.