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The AICPA Governmental Audit Quality Center (GAQC) helps its members meet the challenges of performing quality audits. One significant industry the GAQC focuses resources on is audits of state and local entities. The AICPA’s State and Local Governments Expert Panel (SLGEP) serves the needs of AICPA members on financial and business reporting and audit and attest matters. The Expert Panel protects the public interest by bringing together knowledgeable parties in the state and local government industry to deliberate and come to agreement on key state and local government issues.

Congratuations to the following indivduals who have earned ther Certified Public Finance Officer (CPFO) designation. 

Geographic areas where leading-edge anchor institutions and companies cluster and connect with start-ups, business incubators, and accelerators – “innovation districts” – are part of a new urban model, according to The Rise of Innovation Districts: A New Geography of Innovation in America, a new paper from the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program.

America’s counties spend an estimated $20 billion-$24 billion on health insurance premiums each year, covering approximately 2.5 million county employees and nearly 2.4 million dependents, according to a new study by the National Association of Counties.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board recently released two new exposure drafts on other postemployment benefits: one directed at employers (Accounting and Financial Reporting for Postemployment Benefits Other Than Pensions) and the other targeted at OPEB plans (Financial Reporting for Postemployment Benefit Plans Other Than Pension Plans). Both EDs propose to bring accounting and financial reporting for OPEB into line with GASB’s new guidance on pensions.

This week, the GFOA published an alert for members on the SEC’s MCDC initiative, which was announced by SEC’s Enforcement Division on March 10, 2014. The initiative provides issuers and underwriters the opportunity to self-report instances of material misstatements in bond offering documents regarding the issuer’s prior compliance with its continuing disclosure obligations.

The information contained in this document was developed to educate members about the SEC MCDC Initiative and should not be construed as legal advice.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (H.R. 3086), if enacted, would cost states and localities several hundred million dollars a year. The bill would permanently preempt state and local governments’ authority to assess taxes on Internet access and would specifically remove that authority from ten states that are currently permitted under current law to assess such taxes. The House Judiciary Committee recently approved H.R.

The House Judiciary approved the GFOA-opposed Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act, H.R. 3086, which would permanently preempt state and local governments’ authority to assess taxes on Internet access and pave the way for other industries to argue that they too deserve special protections from state and local taxation.

"The GFOA Award Program for Small Government Cash Basis Reports is happy to announce a first-time winner of the award - the City of Junction City, Oregon. Receiving this award demonstrates the exceptional dedication that the City of Junction City has to transparency, accountability, and financial reporting on a modified cash basis. All staff involved in attaining this distinction for the city should be commended for their accomplishment.

On behalf of local governments across the nation, our organizations want to express our opposition to H.R. 3086, the "Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA)." Instead, as the expiration date for the current moratorium on taxing Internet access approaches, and Congress considers changes to ITFA, our organizations recommend a shorter-term extension of ITFA, as a sensible solution that respects state and local taxing authority. In addition, any extension must maintain both the long-standing grandfather provisions that preserve existing state and local revenues, as well as certain general business taxes that were not intended to be part of the moratorium.