Long-term financial planning is an important part of the financial recovery. It ensures the government is on a path to a long-term, solid financial foundation. A big risk during a financial recovery is when a government fails to account for: A) long-term issues that thwart a full recovery or B) the long-term effects of financial strategies that were used to give near-term relief to financial stress.

GFOA’s surveys show that long-term financial planning has become more widespread among local government since the last economic downturn in 2008. However, there are still some governments that don’t yet have a long-term financial plan. Therefore, this part of the website presents different paths for people who don’t yet have a plan and for those who do but want to know how to optimize it for financial recovery.