News

As part of the mayor’s Back to Basics program, the City of Los Angeles, California, embarked on an open data initiative aimed at providing up-to-date information about the city’s performance on key initiatives and progress toward city-wide goals. The open data portion of the Back to Basics program sought to provide residents and employees with information that would help them better understand the city’s challenges, creating greater visibility that would lead to solutions.

Green bond issuance has generated significant recent attention as this market continues to expand. In 2014, there were 35 issuers of green bonds worldwide, totaling $36.6 billion in par amount, which is more than three times the 2013 volume of $10 billion. In the first quarter of calendar 2015, the global volume reported by the World Bank was $8 million. Green bond issuance by U.S. state and local governments represents less than 10% of these amounts.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has invited GFOA members to participate in an important survey regarding the activities that you engage in when preparing and publishing your audited annual financial reports in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

Solidifying its position in the conversation on national health-care policy, GFOA’s Executive Board unanimously ratified a policy statement on the 40% excise tax on health plan premiums – the so-called Cadillac tax. This issue is vitally important to states and municipalities, which continue to work diligently within sometimes severe budget constraints to provide benefit plans that will help them attract and retain a quality workforce, in competition with private-sector wages and salaries.

Managing a community’s fees and charges can be time consuming; in some cases, just keeping track of each department’s fees can be a major undertaking. The City of Sacramento, California, made an initial effort to address these challenges in 2006 by developing a database of the permits, fees, fines, and license charges the city collected. But while it was a good first step, this initial attempt to create a central repository for all city related fees was incomplete.

Like many other communities, the City of Shoreline, Washington, faced significant economic pressure as a result of the nation’s recent recession.

Harford County (Maryland) Public Schools (HCPS) faced a number of serious challenges – class sizes were increasing, employees hadn’t received pay increases in six years, and employees and the community generally felt that resources were not well managed. Faced with the likelihood of additional cuts, the superintendent of HCPS decided to take a new approach to the district’s budget development process, consulting the community to determine the district’s priorities.

A recent $550 million debt issuance by Denver, Colorado, included an interesting twist – the tail end, some $12 million, was set aside to be sold exclusively to residents. This portion of the offering, referred to as the Mini-Bond Program, sold out within the first hour of availability. The bonds were available for purchase online, making citizen participation easier than past attempts, when the bonds were sold directly to residents.

This week the State and Local Legal Center (SLLC) published summaries of this term’s U.S. Supreme Court cases that are important to State and Local Governments. In this guide, the SLLC highlights not only “The Big Cases” but also cases in which the GFOA and other members of the SLLC signed an amicus brief, directing the court to consider the broad legal effects of the court’s decision to state and local governments. The guide includes:

The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) has announced the recipients of its 2015 scholarships. The GFOA’s mission is to enhance and promote the professional management of governments. Among the ways the GFOA accomplishes its mission is through education, training, and leadership.

Heather A. Johnston, City Manager, City of Burnsville, Minnesota, became president of the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) on June 2, 2015. The gavel was passed at the association’s annual business meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) has announced the recipients of its 2015 scholarships. The GFOA’s mission is to enhance and promote the professional management of governments. Among the ways the GFOA accomplishes its mission is through education, training, and leadership.