GASB proposes standards for reporting land, other real estate held as investments; adds SEA project to agenda.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board has issued a proposal related to the reporting of land and other real estate investments by endowments. Current accounting standards require endowments to report those investments at historical cost, although other entities that exist for the purpose of generating income--such as pension plans--report them at their fair value. Comments on the proposal are due June 29.

The requirements of the proposed statement would be effective for financial statements for periods beginning after June 15, 2008. A copy of the proposal, titled Land and Other Real Estate Held as Investments by Endowments, may be downloaded from the GASB's Web site at www.gasb.org.

In another action, the GASB last month announced it has added a project to...