Section: Around the Nation

NASACT recommends that the SEC consider the burden of increased and more complex reporting on governments and scaling the data standards to the size and complexity of entities to ensure that smaller governments are not unduly disadvantaged.

NASACT’s annual conference provides relevant opportunities for state auditors, comptrollers, and treasurers to come together to learn and network and interact with providers of innovative services to state and local governments. As state governments continue to encounter major challenges, sharing ideas and networking with peers, standards setters, and industry leaders has never been more important.

Illinois State Treasurer Mike Frerichs is elected president of NASACT. New Executive Committee members include Bob Jaros from Colorado, Doug Ringler from Michigan and Dereck Davis from Maryland.

The MSRB has issued a request for input on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices in the municipal securities market. NASACT will be crafting an association response.

The U.S. Treasury has posted updated guidance for reporting under the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds.

Take a moment to consider what these opportunities might look like across operations and how cloud-based enterprise software can help. Once you’ve seen these benefits, the real question may be: Why isn’t your business already operating within the cloud?

Skelton will begin his duties as director with the GASB on April 1, 2021. He replaces David R. Bean, who will retire on March 31.

The guidelines in the toolkit pertain to reviews related not only to the effects of COVID-19 on federal operations (e.g., Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act expenditures), but also to reviews of other emergent or ongoing challenges external to COVID-19, such as threats to health, safety, and the environment.

The changes are in a number of areas specifically geared toward aligning with the work already underway as part of the President’s Management Agenda. OMB accepted many of NASACT’s suggestions, particularly clarifications regarding the use of “must” and “may.”

On February 21, several state government associations joined NASACT in sending a letter to the Financial Accounting Foundation to express strong concern over governance issues that led to the FAF's recent selection of a private sector individual to be the next chairman of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board.

There are important issues related to state and local government accounting addressed in this report. We believe the issue of greatest concern is a proposal in the invitation to comment section of the document to eliminate state and local government accounting from the CPA exam.

Nacha will be taking a position of “no enforcement” of the new data security rule through June 30, 2021, with respect to government entities that are working in good faith toward implementation and compliance.

All previous GASB chairs have been state auditors. Importantly, state auditors will now be left without any representation on the GASB. This fundamentally compromises the diversity of the GASB.

The Board of Trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) today announced that it has appointed Joel M. Black as the next chair of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB).

The FAF has elected Kathleen L. Casey as its next chair. Ms. Casey’s three-year appointment takes effect January 1, 2020.

Entities that did not have new expenditures under 10.766/10.780 (as defined by 2 CFE 200.502(b)) during FY 2019 will not have to report 10.766/10.780 awards on the SEFA for FY 2019.

How quickly a year goes by! It seems like we were just together in Salt Lake City last August for the annual conference, and now the 2019 conference is just around the corner. I hope you will join me and my co-hosts in Scottsdale this August 17-21.

Click to view the report, State of Payments: Study of the Payments of the State of New York - Project Findings.

NASACT members should be aware that the software company seeking to have the legislation passed is billing it as an important fraud prevention and accountability tool. Your office may receive questions from your state legislators.

Several NASACT Executive Committee members recently participated in a bi-national U.S./Mexico forum entitled “Transparency, Accountability and Ethics in Public Management.”

XBRL US recently released its draft CAFR taxonomy for public comment.

Members of the financial industry, state revenue tax agencies, the National Automated Clearinghouse Association, and the Internal Revenue Service have banded together to combat identity theft and prevent fraud by making recommendations on naming conventions for ACH tax refunds.

During the hearing, the comptroller general stressed the need to involve the state audit community in addressing improper payments in the Medicaid program.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has released its audit of the U.S. government’s consolidated financial statements for fiscal years 2017 and 2016, finding that much work remains to improve federal financial management.

The Board of Trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation has announced the appointment of Kathleen L. Casey, Jeffrey L. Esser, and David C. Villa to the FAF Board of Trustees, effective January 1, 2018.

NASACT President and Tennessee State Treasurer David H. Lillard, Jr., recently welcomed state finance officials from around the nation to Nashville, Tennessee for the association's 102nd annual conference. Over 500 were in attendance, a record for recent history.

As my tenure is coming to a close, I want to leave you with one particular observation, and that is the importance of being active.

The National Federation of Municipal Analysts has released a draft white paper on “General Obligation Bond Payment Protections: Statutory Liens and Related Disclosure.” The NFMA addressed this topic in a white paper “to call attention to the lack of uniform, transparent and clear disclosure of the payment sources and security protections afforded” to the holders of general obligation debt.

The National Association of State Budget Officers has released a new report on the general view of state government fiscal health. NASBO found that most state budgets continue to grow at a moderate pace after several years of slow recovery following the Great Recession. However, the progress has been uneven across states, and long-term spending pressures remain in areas such as health care, education, pensions and infrastructure...

With assistance from the American Association of Retired Persons, the National Association of State Retirement Administrators recently completed a comprehensive review of state pension reforms since the Great Recession. The report, Significant Reforms to State Retirement Systems, found this to be the greatest period of change in the history of public pensions...