GASB issues Statement No. 44.

• Position: National

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has issued Statement No. 44, Economic Condition Reporting: The Statistical Section. Statement 44 is designed to reflect the significant changes that have taken place in government finance, including the more comprehensive government wide financial information required by GASB Statement 34.

The statistical section comprises schedules presenting trend information about revenues and expenses, outstanding debt, economics and demographics, and other subjects. These schedules are intended to provide financial statement users with contextual information they need to assess a government's financial health.

Statement 44 updates the statistical section schedules to include, for example, requirements for governments to report the broad array of debt they now issue in addition to general obligation bonds that were previously reported. The...