Budget Trends Report for U.S. Counties

Every month, Starbridge processes millions of public documents—board meeting minutes, strategic plans, RFPs, and contracts—to help businesses identify their best-fit public sector customers.

Executive summary

We ranked which counties have the budget for new products and services this year. We analyzed thousands of public documents including:

• YoY budget trends, funding cuts and allocated funding sources
• Leadership Changes
• Layoffs, hiring sprees /freezes, new grants
• Major population changes
• Meeting videos & transcripts and more

The Starbridge propensity score adds context to every county — helping you understand who is likely to spend and why.

Top trends

• 10 counties are aggressively spending in 2026.
• 33.4% are open to spend this year.
• Texas has the highest concentration of counties willing to spend.

What you'll learn

• Which counties show the strongest budget increases, and why
• Where counties budgets are shrinking, and how that affects purchasing behavior
• Where vendors should prioritize, or deprioritize outreach based on counties budget momentum

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