State income taxes impacting populations

This article pertains to the migration of individuals to where a tax benefit can be achieved.   Summarize a Tax Foundation study, and details the jurisdictions with the highest and the lowest personal income tax.  Interesting that when those celebrities that do this speak up, a pattern that has been underway for awhile gets more attention.  http://www.accountingweb.com/article/how-state-income-taxes-may-be-redrawing-population-map/222315

AICPA video explaining GASB pension standards

Just 6 minutes in length, this video describes the changes that the state and local governments will be undergoing to achieve the improved transparency and accounting for public pension benefits.  http://www.aicpa.org/News/AICPATV/Pages/home.aspx?bctid=2591408790001&Ca=Government%7cProfessional+Issues&Type=VideoSubCat

Comparing across governments

Open governance projects.   Comparing the reporting across cities and states is a challenge as presented in the report of a study that looked across 260 California cities. Lack of standardization and the fact that not all reports use machine readable data are just part of the challenge.

 The article mentions this work in comparison to the transactions reporting approach of the UK.  http://www.theguardian.com/local-government-network/2013/aug/01/open-governance-projects-compare-council-finances

Projects undertaking tracking of government spending are at http://openspending.org/  and http://www.openlylocal.com/
These are ambitious projects.

Detroit's underfunding of pension funds less dire than presented

originally in the city's pending bankruptcy, according to this article http://www.freep.com/article/20130802/BUSINESS06/308020076/Detroit-pension-Orr-bankruptcy

This article shed some light as well. 
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20130804/NEWS/308049961/detroit-ch-9-may-set-pension-precedent#

An introduction to government reporting

in the form of a 46 slide slidshare.   http://www.slideshare.net/parentebeardllc/how-to-read-and-interpret-municipal-and-governmental-audited-financial-statements

Audit report blasts city of Stockton, CA

Stockton had taken bankruptcy, but this report shows internal control issues that likely contributed to poor fiscal affairs.  http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130801/A_NEWS/308010320

The writer of the article keeps a blog on Stockton City Hall activities http://blogs.esanjoaquin.com/stockton-city-hall-blog/