Government Finance Review articles from October 2005

Government Finance Review archives from October 2005

Best practices in collections and disbursements.(electronic payment)(Editorial)
October 1, 2005... Late last year, a Federal Reserve study confirmed what many suspected--that electronic payments were exceeding check payments for the first time. In 2003, the number of electronic transactions totaled 44.5 billion, compared to 36.7 billion...

GFOA invites you to contribute to special issue of Government Finance Review.(News & Numbers)
October 1, 2005... GFOA will commemorate its centennial with, among other things, a special issue of Government Finance Review devoted to the association's past, present, and future. The editors want to involve as many members as possible in this issue, and...

Fitch Ratings weighs in on credit implications of GASB 45.(Governmental Accounting Standards Board's policy for post-employment retirement benefits)
October 1, 2005... A Fitch Ratings special report on GASB Statement No. 45 offers some important insights into how the rating agencies view the fiscal impacts of reporting the future costs of other post-employment retirement benefits. With required annual...

Technology spending to accelerate over next 5 years.
October 1, 2005... After a period of budget shortfalls, a new report by independent market analyst Datamonitor indicates that U.S. state and local governments will increase their technology spending over the next five years. The report, "IT Opportunities in State...

State budgets in best shape in last five years.
October 1, 2005... State budgets are healthier than they've been in five years thanks to improving revenues and careful balancing of priorities by state legislators across the country, according to State Budget & Tax Actions 2005: Preliminary Report, released in...

NLC: city officials disappointed with counterparts at federal, state levels.(National League of Cities)
October 1, 2005... A recent report by the National League of Cities found that city officials overwhelmingly disapprove of the way their elected counterparts at the federal and state levels handle budget and tax issues. A large majority of city officials also say...

Recent releases.(A Revenue Guide for Local Governments book by Robert L. Bland )(Brief Article)(Book Review)
October 1, 2005... A Revenue Guide for Local Governments is a practical guide and reference for city and county managers, finance and budget directors and staff, and other local officials who are struggling to balance revenues with costs. The new edition of this...

Cash management technology in state and local government: results of a GFOA/JPMorgan Chase survey.
October 1, 2005... For the first time in history, Americans have started making more payments electronically than with paper checks. Is your government ahead or behind in its acceptance of electronic payments and use of electronic disbursement tech nologies? How...

Hold the paper! Strategies for automating vendor payments.
October 1, 2005... As a distinctly American musical form, jazz epitomizes the expression of infinite variations from a unified theme. The ability to extrapolate from a common theme is equally relevant to American government, where, despite shared challenges, no...

Billing and payment options for local governments.
October 1, 2005... Let government pay for it. How many times have citizens echoed that phrase? In reality, for government to pay for anything, it must first collect the revenue. Local governments provide many services--police protection, fire protection,...

Beyond total return: using a fiduciary standard to evaluate investment performance.
October 1, 2005... The nature of public fund investing is unique. As stewards of public moneys, government portfolio managers have the fiduciary responsibility to ensure that investments are suitable. The Wall Street approach to investment management and...

It's not selling out! Why and how cities should pursue corporate sponsorships.
October 1, 2005... The 2001 recession and resulting fiscal crisis among state and local governments underscored the need for revenue diversification. In this era of ever-increasing citizen demand for more and better services, rising costs of providing services,...

New guidelines for writing or revising your pension plan's investment policy: the recent GFOA recommended practice on investment policies for deferred compensation plans and the associated policy checklist offer useful guidance and tools for either developing policies from scratch or reevaluating existing policies.
October 1, 2005... In 2003 GFOA adopted a recommended practice encouraging pension systems to develop and adopt formal investment policies. Soon thereafter, the Committee on Retirement and Benefit Administration realized that a similar recommended practice was...

Moving up or moving on: advice on how to get that next job: technical skills alone are not enough to propel you to the upper echelons of local government management and finance. Learn what today's employers are looking for and how you can best position yourself for a promotion or new job.
October 1, 2005... If you have aspirations and goals in the field of public finance, now is the time to start thinking about your next move. What will it take to get promoted or get a new job with a different government? What are employers looking for in their...

Editorial calendar.(Calendar)
October 1, 2005... December 2005 Issues in Pensions and Benefits Administration Articles due: September 15, 2005 Ad insertion order due: October 15, 2005 February 2006 Internal Control for State and Local Governments Articles due: November...

GFOA and the evolution of performance measurement in government: through the years, performance measurement has defied the fate of both generals and other management reforms--it has neither died nor faded away, and, in fact, remains an effective management tool and the source of much innovation in government.(Government Finance Officers Association)
October 1, 2005... Balanced scorecard. Six sigma. Business intelligence. Performance budgeting. Business analytics. Process improvement. Enterprise planning. ISO. The list of management tools available to government finance officers today is dizzying and seems to...

State, federal lawmakers moving to curb eminent domain powers: the Supreme Court's June ruling that local governments can use their power of eminent domain for the purpose of economic development has unleashed a legislative backlash from state and federal lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat.
October 1, 2005... The U.S. Supreme Court's June ruling in the case of Kelo v. City of New London, Connecticut, has sparked considerable controversy around the country over local governments' use of the power of eminent domain for economic development purposes....

New GASB standard on termination benefits: despite certain similarities, there is at least one crucial difference between postemployment benefits and termination benefits: the cost of postemployment benefits is properly recognized over an employee's active service, whereas the cost of termination benefits is not.(Governmental Accounting Standards Board)
October 1, 2005... Last year, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board released the final elements of a comprehensive framework of accounting and financial reporting for pensions and other postemployment benefits. This year, the GASB completed a similar effort...

Transformation takes more than technology.(Government 2.0: Using Technology to Improve Education, Cut Red Tape, Reduce Gridlock, and Enhance Democracy)(Book Review)
October 1, 2005... Government 2.0: Using Technology to Improve Education, Cut Red Tape, Reduce Gridlock, and Enhance Democracy Published by Rowman and Littlefield Publishers rowmanlittlefield.com 2005; 304 pages, $27.95 In Government 2.0: Using...

Calendar.
October 1, 2005... [estate and provincial association events] October Georgia GFOA Annual Conference October 2-5 Savannah, Georgia www.ggfoa.org North Carolina Association of County Finance Officers October 4-7 Winston-Salem,...

Addictive, expensive, dangerous--'The Great American Jobs Scam'.
October 1, 2005... Call it, if you will, the crack cocaine of state and local governments' economic development practices--their endless flow of tax breaks and outright gifts to private corporations they want to land, or figure they have to pay off to stay put....