Index analyzes complex data Tax, services ratings rile some, but 'everybody looks' To create its ground-breaking tax and services index, The Detroit News, over five months, collected more than 10,000 pieces of data on 127 Metro Detroit communities. An index is a way to compare complex things such as governments, places to live and colleges. Hull helped The News develop the tax and services index that is the basis for this special report. Every year, we look at the ratings of different colleges. Experts caution that an index can be misused if it's misunderstood.
Few people take the time or effort to assess their local government.
For example, The News tried to collect acreage of parks per person, but most communities had no idea how large their parks were. So The News measured the number of parks in each community. Other sources included the insurance industry, county assessment records and state tax records. The data was adjusted for population. Scores were assigned by whether a community was in the top 25 percent, middle 25 percent, etc.