Letter to the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB)

By Jordan Bruneau
02/12/2021
In a little-known and influential institution, a group of experts at the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) regularly update best practices and standards for government financial practices and procedures. They are best recognized for their generally accepted accounting principles. As described in their website, “GASB develops and issues accounting standards through a transparent and inclusive...

TAGS: GASB

Has Sacramento really balanced the state’s budget?

By Bill Fletcher
01/13/2015
Thanks to Proposition 30 with its retroactive tax increase and an improving economy, the state claims that it has balanced its General Fund budget.  This may be technically correct but ignores some very unpleasant realities. Claiming to have balanced the budget ignores the growing unfunded liabilities associated with public employee pensions and other unfunded retirement...

TAGS: California state budget, GASB, unfunded pension liabilities

Public Sector Pension Plans Do Not Pass the "Smell Test"

By Edward Ring
03/04/2014
“Pew’s relationship with the Arnold Foundation does not pass the smell test,” said Meredith Williams, Denver-based executive director of the National Council on Teacher Retirement. –  “Pension Funds Press Pew to Cut Arnold Foundation,” Philanthropy Today, March 4, 2014 If you’re looking for an example of how, increasingly, political debate in America is framed as...

TAGS: California State Teachers Retirement System, CalSTRS, CalSTRS unfunded liability, GASB