Managing the issues.

• Author: Kinney, Anne Spray
• Position: From the editor

Financial management is broad in scope, touching every area of the organization and including not just finance but also questions of innovation, lowering risk, incorporating GASB guidance, and strategies for increasing revenue--among a myriad of other topics. This issue of Government Finance Review presents a variety of topics that are on the minds of state and local finance managers.

Roanoke, Virginia, is one of the local governments that worked with the GFOA to develop and test its new financial assessment model. In "Assessing Your Financial Management Acumen," GFOA President Chris Morrill, along with Ann Shawver and Shayne Kavanagh, discuss Roanoke's experience with the model and the insights the city gained into the underlying quality and strategy of its financial management.

In "The Effect of Fiscal Health on Urban Innovation," Kseniya M. Khovanova-Rubicondo provides details of her study about whether the availability of financial resources is a crucial factor for public-sector innovation to occur. Her research ultimately determined that fiscally healthy cities innovate more.

In "The University of California ERM Program Reduces the Costs of Risk and Borrowing," John Bugalla and Kristina Narvaez explain how the University of California identifies and analyzes the full cost of risk, allowing it to...