Balancing AI Innovation and Risk for Local Government Finance
In the Treasurer’s office in Schleicher County, Texas, halfway between Austin and El Paso, Treasurer Jennifer Henderson began to see how generative AI was changing her work life in spring 2025. Henderson had been grappling with calculating lease liability over time, an extremely manual and time-consuming effort required by a financial reporting standard from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) that went into effect
during the pandemic (GASB Statement No. 87, Leases). With new AI-enhanced software, she was able to cut the time spent accounting for the small county’s equipment leases by two hours apiece.
Publication Date: December 2025
Authors: Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene
