State fiscal comparisons

http://www.truthinaccounting.org/library/doclib/TIAFSOS9-2015.pdf

Illinois fiscal woes

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/mikeshedlock/2015/12/28/death-watch-illinois-despite-massive-stock-market-rally-illinois-pension-liabilities-go-up-and-up-and-up-n2097394?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

Pension Data

http://slge.org/research/public-plans-database

Better Government

http://www.bettergov.org/ The Better Government Association (BGA) is a non-partisan Chicago-based watchdog group with the mission to "combat waste, fraud and corruption in city, county, suburban and state government".

GASB brings up reporting model for discussion

http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2015/sep/government-financial-statements-201512947.html

Expanded reach of nonprofits

http://www.thetaxadviser.com/newsletters/2015/aug/navigating-nfp-salt-nexus-compliance.html may bring about unexpected results. Check this article to know how NFPs are impacted.

Nonprofits and strategic plans

http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2015/aug/not-for-profit-strategic-plans-201512872.html

Detroit's first bond sale since emerging from bankruptcy

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-19/detroit-said-to-offer-4-625-in-first-bond-sale-since-bankruptcy Bond buyers are remembering and the bonds were priced to yield returns higher than top rated debt. This situation has resulted in more scrutiny of bond sales, but the plan has been set in place.

Tax-exempt hospital rule changes

http://www.aicpa.org/Publications/TaxAdviser/2015/july/Pages/Tax_Clinic_05.aspx New guidance effective for tax years beginning after 12/29/15. This article summarizes

Proposed changes to the NFP reporting model

http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2015/jul/not-for-profit-financial-reporting.html The FASB exposure draft is highlighted in this Journal of Accountancy article. Changes proposed to classes of net assets and statement of cash flows, are two of the items. Improvements to liquidity discussions are also included. Aug 20 is the comment period deadline.

Economicly Distressed Communities

http://eig.org/news/a-first-look-eigs-distressed-communities-index More than 30 million living in economically distressed communities

Ranking of U.S. States fiscal health

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2015/07/50-state-fiscal-condition-ranking.html Research by Eileen Norcross of Mercatus Center, George Mason University - check out the map and download the background report Solvency for 5 indicators are measures used: cash, budget, long-run service-level, trust fund

GASB has a new GAAP Hierarchy

http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2015/jun/gasb-hierarchy-state-local-governments-201512566.html

Fiscal 50 State trends visualization

http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/multimedia/data-visualizations/2014/fiscal-50#ind0

Rainy Day Funds

States have not rebuilt their rainy day funds - a Pew study shows just over half of what they had in 2007. The challenges to a state in an economic downturn without adequate reserves are great. http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/Assets/2015/03/StateRevenueForecastingReportARTFINALv4web.pdf?la=en

Not funding pensions

http://accounting.smartpros.com/x76416.xml Richmond CA and the debt per capita.

NFP Boards not quite as effective as necessary

http://www.bkd.com/articles/2015/good-intentions-or-intentionally-which-describes-your-board-of-directors.htm?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoju6%2FNZKXonjHpfsX56OkpXaC1lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4CScZkI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFT7nDMaxwy7gIWxQ%3D Read the results of the survey taken in Jan 2015, that was written up by BKD.

Few States Neglected Pension Funds during Recessions

http://www.nasra.org/files/JointPublications/NASRA_ARC_Spotlight.pdf This 12 year report looks at the funding of the ARC (annual required contribution) for 112 organizations for a period of a dozen years.

Predicting State government revenue a challenge

http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/reports/2015/03/managing-volatile-tax-collections-in-state-revenue-forecasts The Pew study identifies the volatility in forecasting revenue and talks about ways to manage the volatility.

GASB 72 on fair value effective 6-15-15

http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2015/mar/gasb-fair-value-measurement-guidance-201511887.html GASB Fair value standard, a result of stakeholder requests for clarity, has been passed.

Pension reasearchers

May be enabled with the public plans database http://crr.bc.edu/data/public-plans-database/

Local government survey of technological ability

http://americancityandcounty.com/site-files/americancityandcounty.com/files/uploads/2014/12/Acquia%20SDG%20-%20s%26l.pdf 35% of those surveyed said they were focusing on information centric solutions..... What are the other focus points? Check and see.