News

On July 25, 2017, the House Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law held a hearing on H.R. 2887, the “No Regulation Without Representation Act of 2017.” The bill, sponsored by James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), was introduced in the 114th Congress and reintroduced for the 115th in June. GFOA and other national organizations have opposed the bill as a broad preemption of state and local government regulatory and tax authority. Click here to view GFOA’s comments for the record.

On July 11, 2017, Government Finance Officers Association’s (GFOA) Executive Director, Chris Morrill, will moderate a panel discussion with The Big Seven before Congress about state and local tax (SALT) deduction. This briefing will serve as a “101” to Congressional staff about how SALT is used in the states, counties, and cities and work to dispel the myth that this is singularly an itemized deduction for wealthy Americans.

Don’t confuse leadership with personality, warned best-selling author and leadership expert Jim Collins in an address to delegates at GFOA’s 111th Annual Conference on May 22, 2017. Charisma is a personality trait, and leadership is not about personality – so it’s OK if a leader has what Collins calls a “charisma bypass.” In fact, he suggested that might be for the best, and that organizations need to put aside the notion that charisma necessarily leads to success.

Patrick J. McCoy, Director of Finance, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York, New York, became the new president of Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) at the association’s annual business meeting on May 23, 2017. During the past year, McCoy served on the Executive Board as president-elect. He has been a member of the Executive Board since 2013. McCoy accepted the gavel from 2016-2017 President Marc Gonzales, Director, Department of Finance, Clackamas County, Oregon.

Steven Gibson, Assistant City Manager, City of Rock Hill, South Carolina, was elected as president-elect of Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) on May 23, 2017. The election was held at the association’s annual business meeting in Denver, Colorado.

Gibson has been a GFOA member for 18 years. He is an ex officio member of GFOA’s Committee on Governmental Budgeting and Fiscal Policy— served as Chair in 2013-2014 and Vice Chair in 2012. He has been a reviewer for GFOA’s Distinguished Budget Awards Presentation Program for more than 10 years. 

Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) has announced the recipients of its 2017 scholarships. GFOA’s mission is to enhance and promote the professional management of governments. Among the ways GFOA accomplishes its mission is through education, training, and leadership.

The recipients of the four awards for the Government Finance Professional Development Scholarship are Christopher Carlos, CPA, Michelle M. DeNeui, Tiffany Leigh Jacobs, and Robert D. Symanski. Each will receive $9,000. 

Government Finance Officers Association’s (GFOA) 111th Annual Conference will be held May 21─24, 2017, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado. The keynote speakers will be Jim Collins, who will speak during the opening general session on leadership, along with a panel of experts,David Parkhurst, Paul Soglin, and Adam Atherly, who will discuss health-care cost containment at the state and local government level for the general session on Tuesday.

Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) has announced the recipients of its 2017 scholarships. GFOA’s mission is to enhance and promote the professional management of governments. Among the ways GFOA accomplishes its mission is through education, training, and leadership.

The recipients of the two awards for the Frank L. Greathouse Government Accounting Scholarship are Hannah F. Chu and Magali Moralez. Each will receive $9,000. 

Government Finance Officers Association’s (GFOA) latest guide, Best Practices in School Budgeting, provides a comprehensive budget process framework that emphasizes academic and finance collaboration to best align resources for desired student outcomes. The framework represents the culmination of a multi-year effort led by GFOA, with input from numerous school district officials and other experts in education finance, to develop guidelines for better budgeting, tailored specifically for school districts.

On May 15, 2017, GFOA filed comments in response to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed amendments to Rule 15c2-12. The letter reiterates that while GFOA promotes transparency in the market and actively supports activities to ensure that investors have appropriate information about municipal securities, GFOA has significant concerns with the SEC’s proposal.

Establishing the issue price of a tax-exempt bond is important to issuers of tax-exempt debt as it: 1) determines the arbitrage yield restriction for rebate compliance purposes; and 2) determines the maximum allowable escrow yield for advance refunding bonds.

On March 6, 2017, the South Dakota Sixth Judicial Circuit ruled a state law unconstitutional that would have required remote retailers to collect and remit sales tax if they exceed a statutory threshold of sales into the state each year. The case, South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., potentially brings the decades-long debate on taxing remote sales a step closer to returning to the U.S. Supreme Court. When South Dakota passed the law in early 2016, it became the first state to implement a remote sales tax law, which was challenged almost immediately.