Cities Skylines: Budget, policies Cities: Skylines Guide

Last update: 04 May 2020

Economy panel

Income

The basic and most important income source are TAXES.

Taxes can be modified in the Economy panel and at the beginning they are set at level 9%. Their size doesn't have a drastic impact on the amount or speed of new buildings.

Taxes depend mostly on the size of build-up area in the city. In second order it depends on build-up density (high density zones pay much more taxes). In third order on the level of buildings in a zone, the better the level, the more taxes they generate.

Second income category is tourism which generates income if there is a lot of unique buildings and commercial zones in the city. You shouldn't put too much faith in it as touristic trends tend to change often, but sometimes they allow you to earn pretty nice amounts.

Third pillar is city communication. Income from tickets is nice, but usually not enough even to pay upkeep cost of the transportation if you have more than one type of it. But if penalties from traffic jams are very big, then you should pay for the transportation.

Expenses

Expenses are divided into few categories and each one of them corresponds to different aspect of the city.

In each category you can regulate how much cash you give to a specific aspect. It can be from 50% to 150% which makes the efficiency of buildings from that category vary from 25% to 133%. Not always it is efficiency in production, it can also be reach or the amount of working cars.

You should check this tab from time to time and adjust the expenses to current situation in the city. Later in the game everything should be set at 100% and no longer be something to be bothered with.

Loans

Loan is the last resort - don't use it unless it is absolutely necessary. After you take a loan, you have the possibility to quickly pay it up and you should do it whenever you have the opportunity.

You can choose from three loans - short term and small, to finance a small investment, medium term and large, and a gigantic one for ten weeks, which you should avoid, even though it is the cheapest one of all. You can take all three loans at once, but it will have repercussions to your budget.

Policies

This panel allows you to adapt your city to specific standards by issuing optional laws connected to the way your city functions.

Policies are divided into services, city planning and taxation.

In services you will find such policies like pet ban or smoke detector distribution. In this category you will find power or water usage limitation and recycling as well.

City planning consists of policies like heavy traffic ban, highrise ban or supporting small and large businesses.

Taxation policies allow you to change their size by two percents.