Government Finance Review articles from August 2004

Government Finance Review archives from August 2004

From finance managers to finance leaders.(president's message)
August 1, 2004... Outside our professional circles, many have a hard time understanding how public finance officers could be passionate about their work. Yet you and I understand that we work at the vortex of public management, where limited resources are...

Milwaukee's old world charm a perfect backdrop: 2004 Annual Conference Recap.(News & Numbers)
August 1, 2004... Downtown Milwaukee and its spectacular Lake Michigan shoreline served as an ideal setting for GFOA's 98th annual conference--the third time Milwaukee has hosted the conference. Some 6,000 people gathered in the city for the four-day event held...

Meet your new president-elect and executive board members.(News & Numbers)(Government Finance Officers Association)
August 1, 2004... GFOA is governed by the 18-member Executive Board, which consists of 15 members-at-large serving staggered three-year terms, the current president, the previous year's president, and the president-elect. At the association's annual business...

Citizen use of e-government on the rise.(News & Numbers)(Pew Internet and American Life Project)
August 1, 2004... New research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that 97 million adult Americans, or 77 percent of Internet users, took advantage of e-government in 2003--a 50 percent increase over the previous year. At the same time, citizens...

Consultant: differences among ERP vendors largely irrelevant to finance office performance.(News & Numbers)(enterprise resource planning)
August 1, 2004... The choice among the six leading ERP software vendors is largely irrelevant in an organization's efforts to drive toward world-class performance in finance, according to new research from The Hackett Group, a business advisory firm. If...

Defined Contribution Decisions: the Education Challenge.(New Releases)(Bill Tugaw International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans)(Hackleman, Paul)(Book Review)
August 1, 2004... Defined Contribution Decisions: The Education Challenge By Paul Hackleman and Bill Tugaw International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, 2004 New legislation and regulations have altered the landscape of how you manage your defined...

Chicago fed: structural factors playing larger role in government fiscal stress.(News & Numbers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Structural factors in both revenues and expenditures have played a larger role in the recent budget problems experienced by states in the upper Midwest than in the past, according to a recent report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. To...

Make or buy? Using cost analysis to decide whether to outsource public services.(Government Finance Officers Association article)
August 1, 2004... Editor's note: This article is adapted from a new GFOA publication, Cost Analysis and Activity-Based Costing for Government. In this period of tight budgets, many governments are under increasing pressure to do more with less. One potential...

Expect the unexpected: financing the Orange County Convention Center expansion in the wake of recession and terrorism.(Tourist Development Tax)
August 1, 2004... More and more communities are using sector taxes to finance growing capital improvement programs. Sector taxes, such as those on tourism, investment income, tolls, and landing fees, among others, are less stable and predictable than sales and...

The future of the check: how Check 21 and emerging technologies will change our payments system.(Check 21)
August 1, 2004... As government finance professionals are aware, our national payments system is now undergoing significant evolutionary changes. In the past decade, adoption of electronic payment technologies in both the public and private sectors has...

Shared services: a strategy for reinventing government.
August 1, 2004... Governments face a widening gulf between the rising expectations of those they serve and their ability to deliver. Right now, funding shortfalls and the looming retirements of baby boomer-generation civil servants are putting tremendous...

IIA and GAO Work to clarify standards differences.(The Institute of Internal Auditors)(U.S. General Accounting Office)
August 1, 2004... According to an article in the August 2003 Internal Auditor, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) and The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) are working together to clarify any perceived discrepancy between the two organizations'...

That's the ticket! Lessons learned from Chicago's parking ticket amnesty program.
August 1, 2004... Although indicators such as the gross domestic product and the unemployment rate appear to be signaling an improving economic picture, state and local governments continue to struggle in the wake of an economic downturn. Municipal tax revenues...

Taking charge of accounts receivable: proper controls over accounts receivable are an indispensable component of any government's overall financial management program.(Best Practices)(Government Finance Officers Association)
August 1, 2004... In 2003, the GFOA Executive Board approved a recommended practice entitled "Revenue Policy: Accounts Receivable Controls." This recommended practice was initiated by the Committee on Cash Management to underscore the importance of written...

Planning a no-sweat presentation: with careful planning, even the most squeamish presenters can learn how to deliver effective presentations.(Management & Careers)
August 1, 2004... Studies consistently rank public speaking among the greatest human fears. As such, it should not come as a surprise that for many professionals, the six most dreaded words in the workplace are "you need to give a presentation." Even so,...

Is IT outsourcing right for you? For one government, the common decision about whether or not to outsource information technology services led to uncommon improvements in IT operations.(Solutions)(Information Technology)
August 1, 2004... Technology outsourcing has been a topic of great interest to a number of organizations over the last few years, and has even been a hot topic in the popular media lately. Given this level of interest, many governments are evaluating how they...

Changes in Social Security to impact public employers and employees: new legislation designed to prevent fraud and abuse in the Social Security program has important implications for government employers and employees.(Federal Focus)
August 1, 2004... On March 2, President Bush signed into law the Social Security Protection Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-203). While the legislation is primarily intended to reduce fraud and abuse in the Social Security and Supplemental Security Income programs,...

Major changes to CAFR statistical section: GASB statement no. 44 will significantly modify the statistical section of the comprehensive financial report, with the aim of providing a broader focus, improving comparability, and encompassing accrual-based data.(The Accounting Angle)
August 1, 2004... This past May, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board issued Statement No. 44, Economic Condition Reporting: The Statistical Section (an amendment of NCGA Statement 1). The new standard will significantly modify the statistical section of...

Becoming a consummate public servant.(The Bookshelf)(Book Review)
August 1, 2004... The new context and character of public service--defined by shifting values, entrepreneurship, information technology, and multisector careers--require enhanced technical, ethical, and leadership competencies. This is the conclusion of authors...

Calendar.(Calendar)
August 1, 2004... [gfoa events] August Minneapolis, Minnesota 23-24 Designing Performance Measurement Systems (Introductory) 23-24 Treasury Management and Cash Flow Forecasting 23-25 Intermediate Governmental Accounting 25-26 Best...

Watching Osborne's government fixes.(Commentary)(Laboratories of Democracy)
August 1, 2004... I'm stuck with a David Osborne habit I don't quite know how to shake. It began in 1988 when Osborne wrote Laboratories of Democracy, portraying a generation of ambitious governors making states into powerful policy innovators across the...