Government Finance Review articles from April 1998

Government Finance Review archives from April 1998

Integrated financial management systems: assessing the state of the art.
April 1, 1998... An exploration of the major components of an integrated system includes ratings of the functional features of selected integrated FMS software packages by 25 state and local government users. Across the country, state and local governments are...

Activity-based costing: illustrations from the state of Iowa.
April 1, 1998... Using activity-based costing for performance monitoring and service redesign, Iowa DOT staff fits the choice of cost allocation methodology to the objective of the particular project. Costing services is one of the biggest challenges facing...

The City of Chicago's Passenger Facility Charge bonds: innovative financing for O'Hare Airport's noise mitigation program. (Illinois)
April 1, 1998... The bonds, secured by a pledge of airport PFC revenues, carry triple A ratings due to the Federal Aviation Administration's Record of Decision guarantee. Each year the Government Finance Officers Association bestows its prestigious Award for...

Revenue sharing and urban growth agreements in the Denver area. (Colorado)(includes related article on economic development in Boulder, CO)
April 1, 1998... To discourage sales tax competition among cities and to control development in growing outlying areas, local jurisdictions are pursuing a variety of intergovernmental agreements. Colorado has been experiencing enormous growth throughout the...

Tax-exempt bond audits.
April 1, 1998... What are the alternatives available to a municipal bond issuer that receives a "Preliminary Determination of Taxability Letter" from the IRS? The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) enforcement and compliance function in the tax-exempt bond area...

Long-range financial planning: new strategies for old problems. (Rock Hill, South Carolina)
April 1, 1998... Crisis reactions - such as across-the-board spending cuts and hiring freezes - gave way to multiyear budgeting and five-year financial plans in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Limited financial resources are not a new problem for local governments,...

The school money puzzle. (public school financing)(includes related articles on education spending and public school enrollment)
April 1, 1998... The ever-present problem of equitable financing for public schools continues to haunt lawmakers and judges. Editor's note: The following article carries a copyright: [C] 1998, the National Conference of State Legislators and is reprinted with...

Why were revenues higher that expected in 1997?
April 1, 1998... U.S. government tax receipts in fiscal year 1997 turned out to be $72 billion higher than the $1,507 billion that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated in January 1997 (see Exhibit 1). The strength of those revenues - which took most...

Biennial budgeting in Washington cities and counties.
April 1, 1998... Editor's note: The following article is adapted from a report published on the web site of the Municipal Research & Services Center of Washington (MRSC). The web site address of the MRSC is http://www.mrsc.org. For more information on the MRSC,...

Washington wrap-up: The 105th Congress in 1997.
April 1, 1998... The first session of the 105th Congress was notable primarily for the historic agreement by the Congress and the Clinton administration to achieve a balanced federal budget in five years and enactment of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (P.L....

Winter Meeting 1998. (Government Finance Officers Assn. Feb 1998 meeting)
April 1, 1998... Capitol Hill was the site of the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) annual Winter Meeting for two days in early February, when the association's five standing committees met to consider recommended practices and policy statements and...

Investing Public Funds, second edition: covering a decade of change. (Government Finance Officers Assn's book)
April 1, 1998... When the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) released the original edition of Investing Public Funds in 1986, it was the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of the public-sector investment function. Today there are many...

Asia and the Midwest real economy.
April 1, 1998... Editor's note: The following article presents excerpts from the original, which appeared in the March 1998 issue of Chicago Fed Letter, published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. During the summer of 1997 the fabric of the Asian economic...

Low-cost, high-impact ideas for using information technology as a management tool.
April 1, 1998... Editor's note: This article is adapted from the Municipal Advocate magazine, Fall 1997, and reprinted with permission from the Massachusetts Municipal Association. Anyone who has participated in municipal budget preparation and budget hearings...

Auditor rotation policies of governmental entities.
April 1, 1998... Auditor rotation is a subject that has periodically received a lot of attention, but little investigation. Recently, the International Federation of Accountants has encouraged accounting firms to rotate senior personnel who are involved in...

Internet policies: state and local government guidelines.
April 1, 1998... Editor's note: The following is adapted from an article that appeared in Maine Townsman, January 1998, published by the Maine Municipal Association (MMA). Before municipal officials connect to the Internet and make e-mail capability available,...

Marketing Your Budget: Creative Ways to Engage Citizens in the Bottom Line.
April 1, 1998... Reviewed by Randy Moravec, finance director of Addison, Texas, and chairman of GFOA's Committee on Governmental Budgeting and Management. One of the great frustrations of government finance professionals who labor much of the year in...

Illinois Politics and Government: The Expanding Metropolitan Frontier.
April 1, 1998... Reviewed by William Stafford, executive director, Illinois Metropolitan Investment Fund, and member of GFOA's Committee on Cash Management. Anyone interested in the current political debate of "government by Darwinism" versus "government by...

Information Security: Strategies for Successful Management.
April 1, 1998... Reviewed by R. K. (Keith) Dowdall, director of corporate finance, City of Winnipeg, and member of the GFOA's Task Force on Technology. In recent times, most senior financial officials have been deluged with changes and new approaches on a wide...