Government Finance Review articles from February 1995

Government Finance Review archives from February 1995

"SLY" investing encouraged in the public sector. (safety, liquidity and yield)
February 1, 1995... Recent losses of public funds through participation in investment pools engaged in risky practices have sparked widespread concern. The investment practices of local governments have come under intense scrutiny. Citizens are questioning their...

Operating and capital budget reform in Minnesota: managing public finances like the future matters.
February 1, 1995... Minnesota's performance budgeting clearly relates the budget to the citizen's needs and to well-defined statewide policy objectives developed within a public process. A scoring system uses critical and strategic criteria to measure the need for...

A multi-asset class approach to pension fund investments.
February 1, 1995... A system for building a portfolio that provides the highest possible return consistent with an acceptable level of risk. Most analysts project that the returns available to investors in the capital markets in the upcoming decade probably will...

Alternative revenue sources in Ontario: assessing and implementing user charges. (includes related article)
February 1, 1995... Determining the cost per unit of the program is essential for setting user charges at a level that will allow all or a portion of costs to be recovered. Ontario municipalities have experienced considerable difficulty in preparing and adopting...

Fiscal impacts of undocumented immigrants.
February 1, 1995... Urban Institute researchers shed light on undocumented immigrants issues by developing data on incarceration, public-school enrollment and taxes in the seven most heavily impacted states. An increasingly acrimonious debate is being waged...

"Going out of business:" final tax returns and collecting taxes due.
February 1, 1995... New lines of communications with tax return preparers and more effective procedures in the collection bureau produce better compliance on final business tax returns for New York City. A problem that is common to all business tax collectors(1)...

Getting returns on tax dollars.
February 1, 1995... With the publication of David E. Osborne and Ted Gaebler's Reinventing Government in 1992, the world of innovation, reform and modernization in the public sector moved from the back-room stacks frequented by accountants, city managers and quality...

The new SEC disclosure rule 15c-12: questions and answers.
February 1, 1995... To assist issuers who are in the process of determining what impact, if any, the changes to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 15c2-12 concerning primary and secondary market disclosure will have on their disclosure practices, the GFOA...

Retirement benefits in the public and private sectors: three myths. (includes related article)
February 1, 1995... The growing interest in public- and private-sector retirement benefits may well result in public policies that have substantial, long-term consequences. For these policies to produce sustainable results, it is important that policy makers view...

Dropping in on a CompuServe forum. (on-line service)
February 1, 1995... Most on-line services offer some type of special interest function, whereby subscribers with similar interests can communicate with each other. Unlike e-mail, which functions on a one-to-one basis, special interest groups allow many people to...

State finance officer certification programs: a study in variation.
February 1, 1995... In the last 10 years there has been a major upswing in the number and variety of state-based government finance officer certification programs. Today, at least eight state government finance officer associations offer programs that result in some...

Derivative investment policy in the public sector.
February 1, 1995... In recent years, the pace of innovation in the capital markets has accelerated, leading to a proliferation of products and presenting investors with an increasingly complex array of investment choices. Derivative products are at the leading edge...

Host agreements for siting waste disposal facilities.
February 1, 1995... Because of the prohibition against open-burning dumps and the forced closing of older, unlined landfills by the department of environmental protection (DEP), Maine's waste disposal problems are increasingly being handled on a statewide or...

GFOA responds to GASB reporting model initiative. (Government Finance Officers Association; Governmental Accounting Standards Board)
February 1, 1995... Recently, the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) formally responded to the Governmental Accounting Standards Board's (GASB) invitation to comment (ITC) document on a proposed new Governmental Financial Reporting Model. The GFOA's...

Sharing Power: Public Governance and Private Markets.
February 1, 1995... This book is about that often-mentioned panacea to government financial problems - privatization. The author debunks the simplistic notion that privatizing is good for its own sake. He posits that contracting out is a reality that all in...

Development Impact Assessment Handbook.
February 1, 1995... Development Impact Assessment Handbook is a comprehensive set of methodologies to estimate the effects of a major urban development project, bringing together a variety of planning and engineering approaches in a single integrated assessment tool...

Quality Management for Government: A Guide to Federal, State, and Local Implementation.
February 1, 1995... Everywhere you look today you see the word "quality." Not everyone understands the meaning of that word, although most people think they do. This book does a good job of helping the reader understand quality from the standpoint of a public...