Week in Washington: GFOA Recap for Committee Members - February 5, 2021

This report suggests local governments are often overly cautious about what counts as “material,” adding unnecessary cost and complexity to financial reporting. By shifting the focus to decision-useful accuracy rather than exhaustive precision, the profession can streamline reporting, save staff time, and maintain public trust.

First principles are the basis for any field, including public finance. They express a fundamental truth about public finance. They remain consistent despite technology and organizational characteristics of public finance that change over time. Understanding first principles is a necessary complement to knowing best practices. First principles provide the foundation for deviating from best practices when it becomes necessary. Listen to this research to learn more.

Life needs rhythm. The human body has a heart rhythm, circadian sleep-wake rhythm, breathing rhythm, and more. Being in rhythm is key to a long and healthy life. Local government budget offices also need to establish a rhythm for the internal budget process. A lack of rhythm can lead to two big problems. Listen to this new research to learn how the City of Brighton, Colorado, created a rhythm for the internal budget process and how you can too.

Our new research delves into the tactics or “games" used by participants in the budget process to secure more resources. The most common such game is "The Padding Play", where budget requestors inflate their needs. Listen to learn more on how to contain and even defeat these tactics.

Organizations benefit from decision architecture. Budget officers can be the decision architects of local governments by building on four job responsibilities that allow them to reduce the impact of well-known problems of bias and noise in human decision processes. Listen to learn more.