Finance
Processing options
By: By Jim Plunkett
In 1996, when MasterCard, Visa and American Express began allowing governments to charge a convenience fee for residents' online credit card payments,...
Sea change
By: By Robert Barkin
Municipal bonds are being rocked by the waves of problems affecting a global credit market....
Crunching numbers | business intelligence (BI) | Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR)
By: By Tim Cruttenden
With residents routinely demanding information about how their tax dollars are used, local governments are searching for ways to effectively account for...
Homeward bound
By: By James Brooks and Christy McFarland
Foreclosure affects more than individual families; it also can diminish the quality of life for entire neighborhoods, disrupt the local market for ownership...
Feds to the rescue?
By: By Meredith Preston
Already faced with budget shortfalls, local governments continue to reel from the consequences of the sharp rise in home foreclosures. As of March, more...
What's the hold up?
By: By Meredith Preston
Since 2006, when federal legislation that helps fund the cleanup and revitalization of brownfields expired, local officials have been anticipating its...
New beginnings
By: By Michael Staenberg and Michael Herring
On Aug. 1, 2008, Chesterfield, Mo., will mark the 15th anniversary of the Great Flood of 1993, an event that left Chesterfield Valley a district the city...
Sweet and soured
By: By Bill Wolpin
Don't be surprised if your home, or at least its mortgage, is owned by the Chinese. How so? Sifting through the flood of stories that describe the ripple...
Investment pool panic in Florida is limited
By: Ed Brock
Since 1982, cities and counties in Florida have used the state's Local Government Investment Pool (LGIP) to magnify returns on their savings. In November,...
Study offers tips on GASB 45 compliance
The Washington-based National Association of Counties (NACo) has released a study of the steps counties are taking to comply with the Norwalk, Conn.-based...
No place like home
By: By John Smith
With today's uncertain mortgage industry and increasing foreclosure rates, local governments are looking for ways to contend with the struggling housing...
Public libraries find outside management
By: Annie Gentile
In recent years, many public libraries have faced the threat of closing or reducing services as the local governments that run them tighten their budgets....
Year-end suspense
By: By Meredith Preston
As the first half of the 110th Congress ends, lawmakers leave behind a full slate of unresolved issues important to local governments. In the short period...
Convenience charges
By: By Jonathan Stoops
For many years, local governments were reluctant to accept credit card and electronic check payments because of the fees incurred to use the services....
Fields of dreams
By: By Robert Benrubi
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington-based Brookings Institute, 450,000 brownfield sites, comprising more than 80,000...
Saving Grace
By: By Lynn Peisner
City Manager Mitchell Lansdell rescues Gardena, Calif., from financial ruin....
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Banking on security
By: By Kimberly Sidden and Dennis Simmons
How to control the technology that causes payment fraud....
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Creative financing for infrastructure
By: Tom Guevara
Bloomington, Ind., has faced economic challenges in the last several years, including the ongoing recession. To combat those challenges, the city has...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Reserve fund balance policy promulgated
By: Stephen Gauthier
Fund balance typically is the most discussed single item in a local government's financial statements. Governments seek to maintain adequate levels of...
PUBLIC FINANCE/Outsourcing eases bill payment problems
Every month, Bryan Richison, a financial analyst for Douglas County, Colo., receives bills for 621 individual telecommunications services, including local...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Local investment accounts ensure funding
By: Lisa Mead and Stephen Lisauskas
It is a maxim in government that maintenance expenditures are insufficient to meet the actual needs of a community. Particularly this year, the increasing...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Fiscal regionalism levels playing field
By: David Miller
The metropolitan region represents a new frontier in the way urban areas are conceptualized. The road to the metropolitan region travels necessarily through...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Net eases government purchasing process
By: David Nute
Typically, government purchasing, from requisition to bid to award, is a costly, paper-driven process. Once a municipality identifies a need for a particular...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Revised UCC article creates uncertainty
By: Ruth Levine
Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) recently was revised, and the changes involve security interests that make it critical for local governments...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Bond school helps local finance pros
By: Rod Gordon
For many, Fall means back-to-school preparations. For the Department of Finance in Henrico County, Va., it signals the beginning of the planning process...
