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/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...
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...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/New GASB statements seek to clarify 34
By: Tom Allen
Since it was issued in 1999, Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement 34 has commanded the attention not just of government finance professionals,...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Budget planning with Internet software
By: Kimberley Williams
Budget planning requires cooperation between many different departments, making it a time consuming activity with plenty of room for error. Now, budget...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Improving municipal debt efficiency
By: Ted Galgano
For many government finance officers, the ability to take advantage of lower borrowing costs can be affected by how close their municipalities are to...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Revising treasury management strategies
By: Nicholas Greifer
Within the financial management profession, perhaps no area is undergoing as drastic a transformation as treasury management. Forces such as technology,...
PUBLIC FINANCE/Municipal bond guide available
The New York-based Bond Market Association has published its fifth edition of Fundamentals of Municipal Bonds. Designed for government finance officers,...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Tobacco bonds provide financing options
By: David Litvack
Since 1998, there have been 14 issues backed by MSA receipts. On November 23, 1998, 46 states, the District of Columbia, and various U.S. territories,...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Understanding school district finances
By: Dean Mead, project manager for Norwalk, Conn.-based GASB
Because cities and counties typically bear a large responsibility for financing public schools, it is critical that they understand their schools' financial...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/ Selecting a pension fund adviser
By: William Underwood
Pension boards should develop specific criteria for the search.Local government pension boards are composed of individuals who have a fiduciary responsibility...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/ Lease-purchase agreements offer flexibility
By: David Penoff
Financial officers must budget millions of dollars for capital equipment each year, but they rarely have enough funding to buy what they need. Faced with...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Utility is recognized for sound finances
By: Gary Witte
Cobb County, Ga., water system's bonds have received upgrades from two rating companies this year. The independently funded water and wastewater system...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/City fares well with online bond sales
By: John DeStefano
In July 1999, New Haven became the first city in Connecticut to delve into the realm of online bond sales when it used the Internet to sell $48 million...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Survey examines fiscal practices
By: Michael Pagano
Aided by a strong national economy and increased tax and fee rates, municipal fiscal conditions have strengthened steadily for nearly a decade. As a result,...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Purchasing co-op stretches dollars
By: Marc Flake
If procurement officers are looking for ways to decrease the cost of supplies, the options are limited. In procurement, the more units that are ordered,...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Tips on passing a bond referendum
By: Matt Zieper
Local officials are confronted with capital improvement needs - building new schools, repairing aging sewerage treatment plants or expanding the park...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Meeting MD&A requirements
By: Ken Deon
Statement No. 34 from the Government Accounting Standards Board brings local governments into the world of full accrual-based accounting, with a mandate...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Improving a credit rating
By: Christy Myers
In the early 1990s, White Bear Lake, Minn., began a concerted effort to lower its borrowing costs by improving the A credit rating that it had carried...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Audit function restores credibility
By: Mark Funkhouser
The audit function in local government is an essential element of public control and accountability. By independently reviewing and reporting on programs,...
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT/Comparisons aid local jurisdictions
By: Patrick Pate
Local governments and professional associations are taking a renewed interest in performance measurement systems. Nowhere is that more evident than in...
