How Ohio is dealing with the financial crisis

http://www.ohioscpa.com/Content/Files/Public/Files/Documents/Advocacy/OSCPA_Ohio_Budget_Advisory_Task_Force_V.1.0.pdf
The Ohio Society of CPAs released a package of state budget reform recommendations developed by its Ohio Budget Advisory Task Force and presented to Gov. Ted Strickland on Nov. 6, 2009. OSCPA formed the task force in response to the state's need to replace $851 million in revenue budgeted from video lottery terminals that will not be realized, the governor's recommendation to delay the final reduction in personal income tax and his public request for ideas to help solve Ohio's unprecedented financial challenges.

GAO Yellow Book site

http://www.gao.gov/govaud/ybk01.htm

FASAB

http://www.fasab.gov/

National Center for Charitable Statistics

This site under the Urban Institute.
The National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) is the national clearinghouse of data on the nonprofit sector in the United States. Check out the information that is available here.

http://nccs.urban.org/

Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board

is located at this site. Something to be aware of at this site is EMMA, the Electronic Municipal Market Access, a database of official documents available for free to the public. (EMMA is somewhat similar to EDGAR at the SEC in terms of the types of information and disclosures that are accessible). Access to EMMA is right on the face of the website.

http://www.msrb.org/msrb1/

http://www.governing.com/gpp/index.htm
How is your favorite state faring?

Nonprofit help is here from the IRS http://www.stayexempt.irs.gov

Management help for nonprofits

http://www.managementhelp.org/org_thry/np_thry/np_intro.htm

Maine's nonprofits

http://www.nonprofitmaine.org/default.asp

Nonprofit help

http://www.nonprofitaccountingbasics.org/

Is FASAB independent

This article talks about the upcoming review of FASAB by the AICPA to determine if it remains independent as a GAAP standard setter. The last review came in 2004, and in late 2009 the review will begin.
http://accounting.smartpros.com/x67773.xml

The Smartpros article is a digest of the full article which while current is freely available at https://members.agacgfm.org/scriptcontent/membersonly/AGAjournal/fall2009/PattonMosso.pdf

As American Recovery and Reinvestment Act programs and funding reach state and local governments, CPAs will want to take a renewed look at internal controls for their organizations. State and local governments with new programs or programs being expanded under ARRA could experience significant changes in the control environment and risk levels. This whit paper describes some of what may need done

http://fmcenter.aicpa.org/NR/rdonlyres/E3E77384-E4BA-4F90-BAE4-FEAE8569CECB/0/FINAL_Understanding_Internal_Control_Services_government.pdf

FASAB Fiscal Sustainability Disclosure Requirements

FASAB issues a new standard designed to enable readers to determine whether future budgetary resources will sufficiently sustain public services and meet obligations as they come due. It is FASAB 36 and it will be fully implemented by fiscal year 2013. Starting in 2010 all information may be presented as required supplementary disclosures. The Standard itself Reporting Comprehensive Long term Fiscal Projections for the US Government is located at this link http://www.fasab.gov/pdffiles/sffas_36_.pdf

The State of the States

The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government has a website chock full of data related to the nation's states. This organization's mission focuses and trackes state fiscal conditions, tax policies, fiscal capabilities, and spending trends. One scary report from July 2009 shows
"State Tax Decline in Early 2009 Was the Sharpest on Record" A wealth of data here
http://www.rockinst.org/government_finance/

Governmental Audit Quality Center

This is a firm membership site but it has resources also available that do not require membership.
http://gaqc.aicpa.org/

Universities should do more with less

http://cjonline.com/news/state/2009-08-28/auditors_seek_university_austerity

In these times of shrinking budgets, Kansas State auditors propose ways to trim budget. You can't please everyone, and I believe this article would create debate among students and faculty. What do you think?

Popular Scoops

http://www.govzine.com/
This is a zine with articles diverse pertaining to government topics. For news on the world of government, visitors should check out GovZine. Govzine is a social news aggregation service focused on various aspects of government, including updates from industry websites and weblogs. First-time visitors can check out the "Popular Scoops" area which brings together recent materials culled from hundreds of different online news sources. Visitors can also arrange the "Popular Scoops" by week, month, or year. Job-seekers will enjoy access to the "Recent Jobs" postings, which are displayed on the left-hand side of the homepage. Along the top of the homepage, users can look at topic-specific postings via the sections "Technology", "Workforce", "Procurement", and "Management". Also, visitors can sign up receive the weekly top stories from GovZine.

Students scramble as States cut Financial Aid

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203674704574336420044733980.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

The impact of tight State government budgets on college students is evident. Slash slash slash on some state financial aid funds. What are students doing in response - responding with varied options to find money elsewhere or slow down their progress

GAAP Hierarchy for federal entities

http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Web/20091970.htm
Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) issued standard SFFAS 34, that incorporates the hierarchy of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) into FASAB’s authoritative literature.

2009 Survey of Governmental CFOS

http://www.grantthornton.com/staticfiles/GTCom/Public%20sector/CFO%20survey/2009%20AGA%20Survey.pdf is located at this link. It is titled The Recovery and Transparency Imperative. This annual survey is sponsored by the AGA and Grant Thornton, andinterviewed and surveyed State Financial Officers in US and Canada CFOs. The results emphasized the importance of financial management and transparency in these economic times, and included advice for new CFOs (#1 was attending to the relationships with stakeholders, notice this and several other of the top pieces of advice was not technical, but behavioral). Also guidelines for making the annual reports more transparent are provided in this 32 page easy to read document.