Government Finance Review articles from February 2000

Government Finance Review archives from February 2000

A Streamlined Sales Tax System for the 21st Century.
February 1, 2000... As Internet sales grow, state and local governments are becoming more concerned about the revenue they stand to lose on uncollected sales and use taxes. In the near future, Internet sales are predicted to total several hundred billion dollars...

E-Commerce Takes Business from Local Retailers.
February 1, 2000... A recent study predicts significant losses to traditional retailers as Internet sales increase. The study revealed that the majority of sales conducted over the Internet are sales that would have traditionally been made at a store; this implies...

Property Tax Revenues at All-time High.
February 1, 2000... Property tax collections throughout the United States are expected to reach a record high of $232 billion in 1999, surpassing 1998's high of $230 billion. Experts predict that approximately 95 percent of that amount ($221 billion) actually will...

Public School Donations Under Fire.
February 1, 2000... In school districts across the United States, legislators and school boards are placing restrictions on the amount of money individual schools can raise through donations and fund raisers. In Greenwich, Connecticut, public grade schools cannot...

Taxpayer Initiatives Threaten Revenues.
February 1, 2000... Recent initiatives in the states of California and Washington could reduce important sources of stare and local government revenues. Last November, a grassroots taxpayer campaign in the State of Washington known as "Initiative 695" helped...

Mexico Goes "e".
February 1, 2000... The Mexican government has designed a new procurement system that links government purchasing units with suppliers and contractors via electronic data interchange. The Compranet system was designed by the Executive Branch Auditor, and currently...

Newark Sues Gun Makers.
February 1, 2000... Last June, Newark, New Jersey, joined several other major cities by filing suit against 29 gun manufacturers, three trade associations, and two New Jerseybased gun distributors. The lawsuit is intended to hold businesses within the gun industry...

Twins Score a Run in Minnesota Stadium Battle.
February 1, 2000... By refusing to hear Minnesota's case against the Minnesota Twins and Major League Baseball, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the state's efforts to use antitrust laws to stop the baseball team from relocating outside the state. Two years ago,...

Financial Management Software "For Rent".
February 1, 2000... Renting software, including sophisticated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, over the Internet is the latest new thing in financial technology. Rather than buying a license, governments pay an Application Service Provider (ASP) a...

Euro Bonds on the Rise.
February 1, 2000... The market for bonds denominated in the new currency of 11 European nations (the Euro) has taken off. Last year, bonds issued by companies in the eleven nations of the European Monetary Union were worth $52 billion. This year, those same...

Stock Market on Unprecedented Five-year Tear.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... This past October, the U.S. stock market (as measured by the S&P 500) set a new record for returns in a five-year period. From November 1994 to October 1999, the market averaged returns of 26 percent on an annual basis. This bested the previous...

Students Spend Time On-line Instead of In Line.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... On-line registration for classes and on-line tuition and other payments are fast becoming the status quo at American colleges and universities. At Texas Tech University in Lubbock, 25 percent of the student population used their credit cards to...

Private Activity Bonds Are Quarter of All Munis.(municipal debt)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... State and local governments have issued $441.8 billion in tax-exempt private-activity bonds since the Internal Revenue Service imposed tight restrictions on the bonds in 1986. That figure represents about 26 percent of all municipal debt issued...

Instituting E-Procurement in the Public Sector.
February 1, 2000... Transforming a procurement department into an e-procurement environment requires a sound business case and a team of skilled professionals, but organizations that pull it off can reap enormous benefits. This article describes four critical...

Streamlining Public Purchasing Through E-Catalogs.
February 1, 2000... This article details how governments can use electronic commerce to streamline the purchasing process. Specifically, it highlights the different types of electronic catalogs available, along with their advantages and disadvantages. The...

Electronic Auctions for Delinquent Tax Properties: E-Government in Riverside County, California.
February 1, 2000... Riverside County, California, was hard-hit in the recession of the 1990s when timeshare owners in its resort communities stopped paying their property taxes. To get delinquent properties back on the tax rolls, the Treasurer's office developed...

Electronic Bidding for Municipal Bonds: Technology Innovations for Competitive Bond Sales.
February 1, 2000... This article highlights the history of electronic bidding for bonds and the options available for municipal issuers today. The use of technology to automate transaction-processing activities has led to dramatic changes in the financial...

The Other Face of E-Commerce: Can the Sales Tax Survive Cyberspace?
February 1, 2000... The explosion of e-commerce is making states nervous about the future of their sales taxes. This article discusses the origins of the Internet taxation problem and possible solutions to it. Editor's note: This article originally appeared in...

Financial System Outsourcing: The ERP Application Hosting Option.(enterprise resource planning)
February 1, 2000... Many public agencies looking to acquire ERP functionality may find that renting software takes less time and expense than buying it. This article describes the concept of application hosting. In his 1995 book Being Digital, Massachusetts...

Computer-based Training for Financial Management Systems: The City of Scottsdale Experience.
February 1, 2000... Computer-based training allows users to have complete control over their learning experience. Users navigate through the course material at their own pace and focus on training that is most relevant to their needs. Like many other...

Multi-year Budgeting: A Primer for Finance Officers.(from the Government Finance Officer Association)
February 1, 2000... This article presents the concept of multi-year budgeting and its benefits and drawbacks. The authors also discuss findings from a recent GFOA survey on how multi-year budgeting is practiced among local governments. Over the past several...

Congress Wraps Up First Session.
February 1, 2000... As the first session of the 106th Congress comes to a close, GFOA members can reflect on a period that saw many public finance issues come to the fore, but left most still unresolved. Getting off to a slower start than usual, the session...

Internet Permitting and Inspection Scheduling System in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... In Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, a new system is making it easier for the construction industry to do the work necessary to continue the county's growth. The new Internet Permit and Inspection System allows builders, electricians,...

Charging A Fee for E-Government: Oakland County, Michigan's Enhanced Access Project.
February 1, 2000... In 1993, if a resident or business of Oakland County, Michigan, wanted access to county records and information, they would have to travel to a county office during normal business hours and make that request in person. The process was...

Tracking Investments: Treasury Management Software Solutions.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... Over the past few years, technology for treasury managers has advanced by leaps and bounds. Software solutions now can help track, analyze, and report on investments, and some applications even allow finance officers to make investments...

E-Commerce and E-Government: GFOA's Second Annual Emerging Technologies Satellite Teleconference.(Government Finance Officers Association)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... On March 10, the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) will host a videoconference on e-commerce and e-government. Broadly defined, e-government is the process of electronically interacting with citizens, and it can range from posting...

Beyond Ideology: Are Individual Social Security Accounts Feasible?(Review)
February 1, 2000... Salisbury, Dallas, ed. Washington, D.C.: Employee Benefit Research Institute (244 pages) Beyond Ideology: Are Individual Social Security Accounts Feasible? is devoted to the topic of Social Security reform. The book is the result of a...

Sending Your Government a Message: E-Mail Communication Between Citizens and Government.(Review)
February 1, 2000... Neu, C. Richard; Anderson, Robert H.; and, Bikson, Tora K. Santa Monica, CA: Rand, Science and Technology (176 pp) As technology grows more pervasive, governments at all levels have more options for providing their constituents with...

"State Budgets and the Business Cycle: Implications for the Federal Balanced Budget Amendment Debate".(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... McGranahan, Leslie Economic Perspectives, Third Quarter 1999, pp. 2-17. This article examines the desirability of a federal balanced budget amendment by looking at the experience of states, 48 of which have balanced budget...

"Arbitrage Rebate--Federal Tax Compliance for Issues of Tax-Exempt Bonds".(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... Kramer, Jeffrey G. The Bottom Line, Volume 17, Number 1, 1999, pp. 35-39. This article describes the highly technical process of arbitrage rebate for tax-exempt bonds. Federal tax law requires issuers to rebate earnings on investments...

"Development Impact Fees and the Acquisition of Infrastructure".
February 1, 2000... Clarke, Wes and Evans, Jennifer Journal of Urban Affairs, Volume 21, Number 3, pp. 281-288. This article examines how the use of development impact fees by cities affects capital acquisition by local governments. Development projects...

"Bidding for Power.
February 1, 2000... Swope, Christopher Governing, October 1999, pp. 28-30. This article focuses on the activities and politics of business improvement districts (BIDs). In a BID, businesses voluntarily levy a tax on themselves to fund district...

"The Impact of Tax Increment Financing Programs on Local Economic Development".
February 1, 2000... Man, Joyce Y. Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management, Fall 1999, pp. 417-430. Designed to stimulate private-sector investment in blighted neighborhoods, tax increment financing (TIF) has become a popular funding...

"Economic Development Consequences of State Support for Higher Education".
February 1, 2000... Storm, Ruth and Feiock, Richard C. State and Local Government Review, Spring 1999, pp. 97-105. This article attempts to determine if state financial support for higher education positively contributes to a state's overall economic...

"Financial Industry Megamergers and Policy Challenges".
February 1, 2000... Hoenig, Thomas M. Economic Review, Third Quarter 1999, pp. 7-13. The financial industry has experienced a series of megamergers throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. Since the early 1980s, the number of banks in the United States...

"Manage Your Risk or Risk Your Management".
February 1, 2000... Borgsdorf, Del and Pliszka, Dan Public Management, December 1999, PP. 6-10. This article focus on the differences and similarities between the duties of general managers and risk managers. City and county managers and mid-level...

"Census 2000: A Status Report for Local Governments".
February 1, 2000... Bourney, James Public Manager, November 1999, pp. 25-27. The Census count determines how $180 billion in federal funds are allocated annually to state and local governments. It is estimated that each household counted adds $10,000 in...

"Governance in a Digital Age".
February 1, 2000... Bonnett, Tom Public Manager, October 1999, Pp. 7-14. This article discusses how trends in globalization, information technology, and economic deregulation will impact state and local governments in the near future. The article contends...

"Converting to Electronic Filing: It's Easier Than Ever".
February 1, 2000... Wacker, Nien-Ling Illinois Municipal Review, September 1999, pp. 13-14. This article describes the steps involved in selecting and setting up a document imaging system, which scans paper records, stores the records electronically, and...