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Your State's Financial 'Open Disclosure' Score Card?

By Walter Burien CAFR1.com 12-3-14

The following link will give a State by State listing of Financial Transparency sites each has established and the corresponding legislative bills that led to the transparency "as shown" http://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/statewide-transparency-spending-websites-and-legis.aspx The focus for all should be on a clear listing of the CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report) for each but in fact many try to center the focus on "Budgets" with obscure links showing of the CAFR. I note that upon review of several legislative bills that passed for disclosure, steps were taken to thwart clear listing of the many City, County, State, School District CAFRs in the State. EXAMPLE: In 2011 for Arizona HB2572 passed as introduced by Representatives Barton, Montenegro, Stevens: Crandell, Lesko, Proud, Yee, and Senator Shooter. The bill as introduced would have require all local governments to list their CAFR on and through one State Sponsored website as well as on their own local government website. What was inserted as an amendment into the bill to cut off the requirement for all local governments to list their CAFR and limit it to just a few  was: "THE DATABASE SHALL INCLUDE THE INFORMATION AS PRESCRIBED IN THE COMPREHENSIVE ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT OF A BUDGET UNIT THAT HAS BEEN PRESENTED WITH A CERTIFICATE OF ACHIEVEMENT FOR EXCELLENCE IN FINANCIAL REPORTING BY THE GOVERNMENTAL FINANCE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION." Well, http://GFOA.org issues the "Certificate" to a few local governments and only to those local governments that submit their CAFRs for consideration for the "Certificate". By inserting that amendment into HB2572, it effectively neutered the bill's effectiveness to list "all" and limited it to only those local governments that received the "certificate". That in effect cut off the requirement to the majority of local governments (probably about 95%) to list their CAFR as required by HB2572. Kinda like in baseball if it was required to list all professional baseball players in the state and an amendment was added to only list the Hall of Fame players from the state, big difference between the two. Whomever mandated that amendment to HB2572, I do not know who it was, but whomever it was the "intent" is clear to me. Most would not make the 1 + 1 = 2 equation, but it stood out clearly to me. So, as you look at what was done in your state per "open disclosure", keep in mind the tactics played by the key inside players to thwart "true and open disclosure" of the CAFR and sidetrack / derail  the efforts of any bill introduced by representatives who "had the intent" for full disclosure.   Focusing the viewer's attention on "Annual Budgets" IS NOT and in no light open disclosure. Budgets are for the year, a CAFR is for all time, the "Statement of Net Worth" developed over decades if not over a century. Again, the difference between your personal "Budget" for operating your house for "a year" compared to your own "Statement of Net Worth" derived from all time, a very big difference between the two. On a last but not least note: The biggest game played is to turn a standing balance asset into a liability, to move it from the "plus" columns to moving it to the "minus" (liabilities) columns. If a small local government has a profit of ten million dollars or a standing balance of a hundred million dollars, they create a liability account, make the transfer, and POOF, there goes a standing plus balance now designated as a negative liability. On a larger local government you may be dealing with billions of dollars with the same done. The larger the liabilities, and number of liability accounts that are created, the bigger war chest(s) created to stash millions if not billions of dollars for the inside players use. Pretty slick don't you think? Detroit bankruptcy? They projected out their liabilities 35-years and their income 1-year. If any of us did the same (including Bill Gates) we all would look like we are on death's financial door. Again, pretty slick don't you think?   Sent FYI from, Walter Burien - CAFR1.com P. O. Box 2112 Saint Johns, AZ 85936 Tel. (928) 458-5854

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