Government Finance Review articles from April 2004

Government Finance Review archives from April 2004

The virtue of planning.(from the editor)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
April 1, 2004... GFOA's 98th annual conference in Milwaukee this June bears an appropriate theme: "Financing the Future of Government." With governments at all levels still confronting significant fiscal pressure, this year's conference offers a great...

Tucson citizen committee recommends regional approach to fiscal challenges.(News & Numbers)
April 1, 2004... The City of Tucson and Pima County must develop cooperative strategies for dealing with regional problems, including the consolidation of duplicative services, if Tucson is to achieve financial stabilization and community revitalization. This...

GFOA welcomes new director of research and consulting.(News & Numbers)(government finance officer association)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... GFOA Executive Director Jeffrey Esser has appointed Anne Spray Kinney as director of the Research and Consulting Center, succeeding Rowan Miranda. A past president of GFOA, Kinney has extensive experience in both the public and private sectors....

New York City: recycling more costly than garbage.(News & Numbers)
April 1, 2004... According to a study by the New York City Independent Budget Office, it costs more for the city to collect and dispose of each ton of recycling than each ton of garbage. IBO estimates that the cost per ton of the city's curbside and...

Winter Meeting recap.(News & Numbers)
April 1, 2004... Members of six of GFOA's standing committees convened in the nation's capital January 22-23 for the annual Winter Meeting. The committees met to discuss topical issues of interest to local and state governments and to review recommended...

NLC: fiscal, economic conditions getting worse, not better.(News & Numbers)(national league of cities)
April 1, 2004... A recent national survey of 345 cities and towns by the National League of Cities indicates that fiscal and economic conditions remain depressed in America's cities. However, cities reported improvements in several important areas, including...

The Price of Government: Getting the Results We Need in an Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis.(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... The Price of Government: Getting the Results We Need in an Age of Permanent Fiscal Crisis. By David Osborne and Peter Hutchinson Basic Books, lay 2004 American government is deep in its worst fiscal crisis since World War II. In cities...

Upgrades underscore Miami's financial turnaround.(News & Numbers)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Citing a strong level of financial reserves, ongoing financial management improvements, and strong economic growth, Standard and Poor's in February upgraded its rating on Miami's outstanding general obligation debt three notches--to A+ from...

Be prepared: long-term financial planning in San Clemente, California.
April 1, 2004... "About the time we can make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends."--Herbert Hoover The National Advisory Council on State and Local Budgeting recommends that "a government... have a financial planning process that assesses the long-term...

Off the shelf ... and into business practices: developing financial policies that work.
April 1, 2004... Financial policies are guidelines for operational and strategic decision making related to financial matters. Financial policies identify acceptable and unacceptable courses of action, establish parameters within which a government may operate,...

GASB 34 and government financial condition: an analytical toolbox.(Governmental Accounting Standards Board)
April 1, 2004... Most governments have now implemented the new reporting requirements mandated by Governmental Accounting Standards Board Statement No. 34, and are now faced with the task of explaining the results to citizens, policymakers, and government...

Local government finance and budgeting 101: encouraging meaningful citizen participation through education.
April 1, 2004... Most citizens have little knowledge about local government budgeting and its impact on their communities. This may be driven by the fact that over the last few decades, the American public has grown increasingly apathetic to political affairs...

A public alternative to commercial lockbox services: Clark County's joint remittance processing center.
April 1, 2004... For local governments, saving money has become much more than a platitude the last few years. Still reeling from the 2001 recession, local governments are pinching pennies wherever they can in order to balance their budgets. Perhaps one area in...

To capitalize, or not to capitalize--that is the question.(Best Practices)
April 1, 2004... In the world of capital assets, there is a vast difference between controlling and accounting for them. When determining what is more important in your jurisdiction, you must first look at the realities of budget and staff size, but you also...

Taming the red-eyed monster.(Management & Careers)
April 1, 2004... Stress! Almost everyone is concerned about it. And there are good reasons for being concerned. Researchers have found that 75 to 90 percent of the illnesses we experience are stress-related. That means that stress is at least partially...

Who's looking out for you? quality assurance for public sector ERP implementations.(enterprise resource planning)
April 1, 2004... Implementing enterprise resource planning systems can be a lonely and intimidating path, particularly for government project managers responsible for overseeing the installation of multimillion dollar systems. In recent years, GFOA's Research...

Breaking down the president's budget: a local government perspective.(Federal Focus)
April 1, 2004... President Bush unveiled his fiscal 2005 budget in early February, outlining the administration's priorities, namely, homeland security and the war on terror, economic growth, job creation, and education. Aside from defense and homeland security...

New guidance on the letter of transmittal.(The Accounting Angle)(Government Finance Officers Association's Governmental Accounting, Auditing, and Financial Reporting)
April 1, 2004... Traditionally, the focal point of the introductory section of a comprehensive annual financial report has been the letter of transmittal. While the National Council on Governmental Accounting established the requirement to present a letter of...

The best tax--and the worst.(Local Tax Policy: A Federalist Perspective)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Local Tax Policy: A Federalist Perspective Published by The Urban Institute Press (877) 847-7377 www.uipress.org 2003; 162 pages; $26.50 Last year marked the 25th anniversary of Proposition 13, the landmark initiative that capped local...

Calendar.(Calendar)
April 1, 2004... [gfoa events] April Cincinnati, OH 26 Evaluating Internal Controls 26 Health Care Cost Containment 26-27 Implementing Performance Measurement Systems (Advanced) 27 Capital Asset Accounting and Reporting 27 GASB...

State and local finance: still perilous seas.(Commentary)
April 1, 2004... The fiscal outlook for America's states and cities, already bleak enough, will turn dramatically worse if Congress passes the budget President Bush submitted in February. With all eyes glued on the presidential campaign, scant public...