Government Finance Review articles from February 2001

Government Finance Review archives from February 2001

Keeping Pace in the Digital Age.(Technology Resource Group online services, survey)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Jeffrey L. Esser This year's biggest news story in state and local government is the same as last year's or the year before--public managers are persistent in their use of technology to increase government efficiency. Governments have long...

Court Rules School Vouchers Unconstitutional.(in Cleveland, Ohio)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... A federal appeals court has declared a Cleveland, Ohio school voucher program unconstitutional, upholding a lower court ruling that the use of public money to send thousands of children to parochial schools breaches the U.S. Constitutions First...

GASB Fine-tunes Statement No. 34.(Government Accounting Standards Board, United States)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has posed some clarifications and changes to its new financial reporting model for state and local governments. GASB's senior project manager said the draft "essentially fine-tunes a few of the...

Pittsburgh May Change Property Tax System.(Pennsylvania)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... With taxpayers and elected officials in an uproar over skyrocketing land values in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, some city officials have called for eliminating the city's property tax system. The current property tax system taxes land...

County Uses Bonds to Modernize Voting System.(debt issue, Travis County, Texas)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Travis County, Texas, officials have approved a $22 million debt issue that will fund new voting equipment for the City of Austin and surrounding cities. An election study group estimated that the proposed new voting system could save the...

California Power Woes Continue.(Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Southern California Edison)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The fallout of the electricity crisis in California broadened in January. Two major utilities defaulted on short-term debt issues of commercial paper, which may have an impact on investors who have purchased these securities (and possibly many...

California Struggles to Replace Power Plants.(building electric utilities)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Eight new power plants are under construction in California to supplement power production in the state. California has not built a major energy plant in more than a decade. Altogether, the projects represent 6,723 megawatts--enough electricity...

SEC Ponders Definition of Broker.(Securities and Exchange Commission, investigation)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is exploring a new issue affecting investors: whether broker-dealer services are being offered by online Web sites that are not regulated by the SEC. At issue are certain Web sites that may escape...

Merit of County Pay System Questioned.(Fairfax County, Virgina merit pay)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... A new merit pay system in Fairfax County, Virginia, is being criticized after all but one employee received a raise as a result of the first set of evaluations. County Supervisors approved the new policy in 1999 as a mechanism for establishing...

Cities Prepare for Economic Downturn.(National Governors' Association report)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... After years of record revenues, cities are tightening their budgets as gloomy economic forecasts prove true. In a recent report, the National Governors' Association said the forecast for state budgets is "cloudy" as revenue slows and health...

SEC Regulates Mutual Funds.(Securities and Exchange Commission)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued new rules in January to crack down on the use of misleadingly named mutual funds. Those funds having a name indicating a certain investment type (e.g., stocks) will have to invest 80 percent...

States Meeting Revenue Forecasts for 2001.(National Conference of State Legislatures survey)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The National Conference of State Legislatures has performed a survey of legislative fiscal staff in the 50 states and Washington, D.C., to determine what the major fiscal issues will be for 2001. The vast majority of respondents indicated that...

New York Appeals School Funding Decision.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... New York State is appealing a landmark court ruling that ordered a major increase in spending on New York City schools. A state judge ruled that the state had not met its obligation, under the State Constitution, to provide a "sound, basic...

GASB Publishes Guide To Statement No. 34.(Governmental Accounting Standards Board issues guide on financial statements)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has published a guide intended to assist analysts as they incorporate the new state and local government financial statements into their work. The new publication, An Analyst's Guide to...

Study Finds Y2K Scare Led to Improvements.(technology upgrades)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Most state governments have improved their information technology systems as a result of the Y2K bug. States worked for years to avoid the Y2K bug, a glitch that involved the inability of some computers to recognize "00" as shorthand for the...

Organizing the Public Purchasing Function: A Survey of Cities and Counties.
February 1, 2001... As a number of state and local governments explore new ways to reduce costs, provide flexibility to service delivery managers, and integrate their decision-making processes, many are examining their purchasing function as a potential area for...

Financing the Milwaukee School Voucher Program.
February 1, 2001... School vouchers have recently become a hot topic of discussion amongst politicians and pundits seeking to overhaul the public school system. But what is often left out of the debate is any discussion of the financing necessary to send students...

Establishing User Fees: Theory and Practice in Canada.
February 1, 2001... There is much debate surrounding the increasing application of user fees in the municipal context. This article establishes basic guidelines for the establishment of user fees and demonstrates that water/sewer services, recreational services,...

Impact of Management Practices on Municipal Credit.
February 1, 2001... Management has always been viewed as a crucial component of credit analysis at all levels of government. This article discusses the management practices that are conducive to strong creditworthiness and those that are detrimental to financial...

Net Present Value Analysis: A Primer for Finance Officers.
February 1, 2001... This article demonstrates how to use a decision tool called net present value (NPV) analysis to evaluate a project's long-term financial costs and benefits. A traditional analysis of a project's long-term costs and benefits simply adds...

Implementing Time and Attendance Systems: The City of Scottsdale, Arizona Experience.
February 1, 2001... This article highlights how the City of Scottsdale, Arizona, transformed its error-ridden manual timekeeping process into a state-of-the-art, Web-based system. The City of Scottsdale, Arizona's pay roll processing department deals with...

Charter Reform and Finance Organization in the City of Los Angeles.
February 1, 2001... Like most large cities, the City of Los Angeles is governed by a City Charter that is adopted by the voters. In June 1999, the voters of Los Angeles adopted a new City Charter to replace the old Charter from 1925. The finance functions were...

Six Predictions for Technology in the Year 2001.
February 1, 2001... Whether it be the future of the Internet or the beleaguered dotcom industry, the prognosticators are out in full force with their thoughts on the year 2001. Include the GFOA in with this group of fortune-telling pundits. The following are six...

Congress Adjourns Second Session.
February 1, 2001... In order to complete work on several FY 2001 appropriations bills, the 106th Congress met for a rare lame-duck session after the November 2000 elections. During this brief session, compromises were negotiated on various key bills. However, in...

Reinventing A County Government.
February 1, 2001... New Castle County is the largest of Delaware's three counties, encompassing an area of 437 square miles in the northernmost portion of the state. Delaware's largest city-Wilmington--lies within its borders, as do 12 other municipalities....

State Sales And Income Taxes: An Economic Analysis.
February 1, 2001... Zodrow, George R. College Station, TX: Texas A & M University Press (204 pages) States facing increased revenue demands are usually forced to choose between two options: relying on a state income tax system or utilizing a state sales...

"Biennial Budgeting: Three State's Experiences--Report to the Chairman, Committee on Rules, House of Representatives".(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... General Accounting Office, October 2000, GAO-01-132. A number of jurisdictions are converting from annual to multiyear budgets, ranging from states to special districts. There is even a growing interest among members of Congress in...

"Local Fiscal Capacity".(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Johnson, Freda S. and Roswick, Diana L. International Journal of Public Budget, March/April 2000, pp. 9-42. Fiscal capacity is critical for all jurisdictions. As such, it is important that governments have a clear understanding of their...

"Land Grab: How the eminent domain bulldozer created a private-property backlash".(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Gurwitt, Rob Governing, January 2001, pp. 26-29. In the late 1970s, the village of Port Chester, New York, declared a large section of its downtown to be a renewal area. Over the past three decades, developers have announced plan after...

"Greater Risk Means More Defaults in 1999".(Standard and Poor's, Ratings Performance 1999)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Standard & Poor's, Ratings Performance 1999: Stability & Transition, February 2000. This article shows that corporate defaults have increased markedly since the 1990s. From a decade low of 18 defaults in 1996 (within S&P's database of...

"From Centralization to Deconcentration: People and Jobs Spread Out".
February 1, 2001... Carlino, Gerald A. Business Review, November/December 2000, pp. 15-27. During the first half of the 20th Century, the United States experienced a shift in jobs from rural to urban areas. In the later half of the century, the nation...

"Changing their tune".(public employee retirement systems)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Denby, Elayne R. Plan Sponsor, November; 2000, PP. 17-18. The last decade has seen a great amount of change in the traditionally styled pension offerings of public employee retirement systems. The state of Delaware is just one example...

"Internet Sales Tax Poll--Illinois".(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Market Shares Corporation, September 14, 2000. Taxation of Internet transactions has been a hot topic amongst not only public finance officers, but traditional retailers as well. In order to get the opinion of the voters on this issue, the...

IN TRIBUTE.(Obituary)
February 1, 2001... Arthur A. Blumenfeld 1932-2000 Arthur A. Blumenfeld, GFOA President 1984-85, passed away November 3, 2000, after a 14-year struggle against cancer. Mr. Blumenfeld worked for the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in various capacities...