Smaller Municipality Reporting: Where’s the Information?

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Abstract

This paper explores the financial report of fund balances/net position for 110 entities for concordance between reporting financial performance to the state and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board compliant statements for fiscal year 2017. Exploring the concordance of the information around fund balance is critical to the understanding the financial reporting of smaller entities (mostly representing fewer than 40,000 people) used to assess fiscal soundness and the ability of these entities to be resilient in changing economic times. Associations with key qualitative factors are also explored for relationships with key accounting measures. This detailed exploration provides information to the GASB, the regulator for governmental accounting, state regulators responsible for fiscal oversight, and citizens of Pennsylvania. This paper complements the public policy research around slack.

Authors

• Renee Flasher, Penn State University - Harrisburg

• Michelle Lau, Brock University

• Dara M Marshall, Western Carolina University