Computer Gaming World: SimCity 4: The Money Game

Simoleons make the world go round. Without them, there can be no transportation, zones, or schools—and if the treasury gets empty enough, there’ll be no more mayor! Managing the piles of dough is, therefore, one of your primary concerns.

With several changes to the money game in SimCity 4, you need great skill to avoid building yourself a money pit of a city. Even late in a city’s life, when many seasoned mayors are accustomed to going on financial autopilot, the money game constantly challenges you to stay ahead of monthly expenses and find new ways of enhancing income.

You set taxes in nine categories (by type and wealth level), and they’re no longer based on land value. A lot of items—power plants, landmarks, rewards, and parks—now cost money to purchase and maintain. Loans are now amortized, resulting in higher monthly payments but also less confusion.

The current treasury balance is visible in the mayor mode interface. To get behind this number, call up your budget pane. The budget pane puts your city’s financial transactions in one easy-to-read place. Clicking on any line item in either the income or expense areas brings up both income and expenses for the chosen item. This helps keep things in perspective and relieves you from having to swap back and forth between detail ledgers.

Income

Income is the money you have coming in on a monthly basis. Increasing this amount is harder than increasing expenses, and therein lies the challenge. Taxes are your primary form of income, and no city is successful without a skillful tax strategy. Your city’s taxes are based on tax rate, building value, and occupancy.

You set the tax rate for each of the 12 developer types. Commercial office and commercial service are set collectively as commercial. This wealth-type breakdown lets you use your tax rates with fine precision to attract or deter the kind of developer you want. The tax rate does have some side effects, however. The degree of change you make affects mayor rating. Lower taxes to improve your mayor rating on every property of the changed wealth level. Raise them, and you’ll make yourself unpopular.

Changing tax rates has an effect on demand. There is, however, always a tax rate that has no effect on demand, but this neutral rate declines as population increases. Lowering a tax rate from this neutral rate stimulates demand, while raising it above neutral dampens demand. The ratio of the rate you select versus the neutral rate dictates the amount of the demand boost/penalty; the more you vary from the neutral rate, the more dramatic the effect.

RCI buildings in the game have inherent building values. This value is changed only if the property downgrades to a lower wealth type (i.e., an R building becomes inhabited by R). A change of one wealth level drops the building value 25 percent. A two-level drop decreases building value 50 percent.

The only income-producing ordinance is to legalize gambling. If you pass it, you’ll receive a guaranteed 100 per month. On the downside, you’ll see increased crime. The spoils of incoming neighbor deals (garbage import or power/water export) appear on this line while a deal is in effect. Click on the line item to see both incoming and outgoing deals and opportunities. Because only income and expenses on the ledger on the month’s last day factor into the actual (rather than projected) budget, enact incoming deals late in the month. If you accept any business deals by plopping an army base, casino, federal prison, missile range, or toxic waste dump in your city, the income amounts from each appear on this line item.

Expenses

Everything you provide your Sims in SimCity 4 costs money on a monthly basis. You can alter some of these budgets. Many items can be funded locally at individual buildings, or centrally through the budget. If budgets have been set locally, the slider in the budget pane reflects the average funding of all applicable buildings. Moving the slider resets every building to the same funding level.

The transportation department shows monthly costs for all your transit stations, airports, seaports, and transportation networks. Seaports and airports can be overfunded or underfunded individually, but road maintenance and mass transit must be overfunded or underfunded collectively.

Public safety encompasses the fire, police, and corrections departments. Police and fire department funding reflects in their coverage area and effectiveness. Fire stations and police stations are funded individually (via the query box of each station) or collectively. The department of corrections can only be funded collectively through the budget ledger.

Health and education systems are funded locally, but you can collectively control them from here. An underfunded health and education structure can operate at top grade if the demand for the facility is less than its capacity. Structures that are over capacity will have strikes regardless of funding level. Health and education can be funded locally or collectively.

The utilities department covers all of your utility infrastructure, including power, water, and garbage. The sanitation department must be funded collectively. Power plants can be funded locally or collectively here, but power lines can only be funded collectively. No water elements are individually funded. Water tower and pump capacity can be altered by the level of funding.

All city ordinances are enacted through this budget entry. Some don’t appear in the list until you meet certain prerequisites.

The costs of all outgoing neighbor deals (garbage export or power/water import) appear on this line as long as the deal is in effect. Click on the line item to see and make both incoming and outgoing deals and opportunities. Only income and expenses on the ledger on the month’s last day factor into the actual (rather than projected) budget, so enact outgoing neighbor deals early in the month (as with the income entry).

City beautification includes parks, recreation structures, and landmarks. Parks and recreation structures are funded through the collective parks and recreation funding slider. All landmarks are included in one line item, and funding is controlled collectively in the budget.

If you have any governmental rewards (e.g., mayor statues, city hall, bureau of bureaucracy, etc.), they’re funded collectively from the government budget.

Loans

When times are tough and you need cash, take out a loan. It’s not always advisable, but you can do it. You can borrow up to 200,000 for each loan, and carry 2,000,000 in total outstanding debt or 10 loans at any time. Money can be loaned in 5,000 increments over a period of 10 years at 8.5 percent. Payment amounts are amortized; every payment includes a portion of principal and a portion of interest.

Only take out loans when you anticipate increasing revenue in the near future. This can be for any reason, but usually involves what you’re spending the loan proceeds on (mass transit, zoning, etc.). If you’re already operating at a deficit, a monthly loan payment increases it. Unless you can increase revenue or reduce expenses to cover your existing expenses plus the monthly payment, the loan only delays your dive toward impeachment.

When you’re operating at a profit or need to make a large capital investment that will (directly or indirectly) increase revenue enough to cover the loan, a loan is a good idea. If traffic in your city is terrible and you need a good public transportation system, a loan may get things moving. If you think loosening your traffic problem will affect your tax collections (Sims returning to abandoned homes and back into the tax base), then take out a loan for a subway system. This is good city management. Taking out a loan to buy a landmark or stop the bleeding of a deficit budget is not.

Overfunding and Underfunding

The funding sliders are great weapons in the bottom-line war. They can save money or buy you time. On the other hand, they can undercut and sabotage your city if not used properly, costing you more in the long run than leaving everything at full funding.

Funding above 100 percent can get you nice benefits, but also can be a waste of money. Its effect depends on the department. For many buildings, such as fire stations and police stations, funding is tied to efficiency. Raising funding above 100 percent provides moderate increases in efficiency (+10 percent efficiency at 120 percent funding), usually not worth the extra money. Other kinds of buildings, such as schools and healthcare buildings, link funding to grade (capacity versus usage). In these cases, funding beyond 100 percent expands capacity (though less so than changes between 0 and 100 percent). Such a building is considered underfunded only if the set funding level causes it to operate over capacity.

Underfunding is an attractive way to save money and, if done selectively, can be effective. It also can be costly and disastrous, especially in important departments. You may get away with it for a while, but the longer you do it, the longer you risk a strike. Strikes occur in some departments if funding or grade fall below certain levels. When a department is on strike, effectiveness drops to 20 percent for the duration of the strike. Strike conditions vary by department.