FOCAL teams: a new mechanism for expanded member participation in GFOA's activities.

• Author: Wallick, Ruth M.
• Position: Finance Officers Calling for Action on Legislation; Government Finance Officers Association

As GFOA's Federal Liaison Center worked during 1985 and 1986 to preserve tax-exempt financing for state and local governments in what became the Tax Reform Act of 1986, one fundamental truth became clear: the more members of Congress heard about the issues from public officials back home, the better the chances were that the association's positions would be included in the final enactment. There are two reasons for this. The first is that members of Congress will always pay more attention to constituents from their own districts, and particularly to government officials from within their districts, than they will to organizations and associations with offices in Washington, even though the messages are the same. The second reason is that, because members of Congress are not always knowledgeable about the intricacies of how state and local governments operate to provide facilities and services for their constituents, hearing from officials from back home can often be educational.

While GFOA has historically involved its members in making representations to Congress to further the association's policies, more emphasis was placed on grassroots lobbying in 1985 and 1986 because of the onslaughts on tax-exempt bond financing of the 1986 tax reform act. When the Supreme Court told state and local governments in April 1988 in South Carolina v. Baker that they could no longer look to the U.S. Constitution to preserve tax-exempt financing, but must look to the political process instead, it became apparent that what was needed was a more organized institutional program for grassroots lobbying. Furthermore, such a program was needed not just to preserve tax-exempt financing, but to protect and advocate GFOA policy in numerous other federal legislative areas.

GFOA's grassroots lobbying work that escalated during the late 1980s as a result of the work begun in 1985 and 1986 saw favorable amendments to the federal bankruptcy laws relating to municipalities. It also helped bring some relief from the onerous restrictions on tax-exempt bond financing of the 1986 tax reform act in the 1989 amendments championed by Congressman Beryl F. Anthony, Jr. (D-AR) that resulted in a two-year construction exception from the arbitrage rebate requirement. Among other accomplishments was defeat of two proposals, one to impose an excise tax on securities transactions (STET), and another to extend federally imposed state property tax relief now enjoyed by railroads (the...