Paying GASB?

• Author: Johnston, Zane H.
• Position: Governmental Accounting Standards Board

By now, some of you have received your "fair share assessment" from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. It seems that the GASB is experiencing some financial difficulties and that the solution to its woes is to solicit "assessments" from some of the larger cities and counties. At last we can welcome the GASB to the real world, where budgets are impacted and we can't always do what we want.

I attended the GASB Update in May at the GFOA conference in New York City. During this session, the audience was briefed on the status of the current GASB work plan and upcoming projects. My impression after this session was that perhaps the best thing that could happen for those of us in municipal finance would be for the GASB to just take a breather and suspend some of the current projects. The GASB is inventing research and accounting projects for which there is no necessity.

A well-funded organization whose only job is to develop theory produces more theory than makes sense. This is precisely where GASB 34 came from. Sure, it works as an accounting model, but then so did the old model. There was no public outcry for a different reporting system, just as there is no public outcry for "Service Efforts and Accomplishments." But give the GASB enough money and enough time and we will surely have to live with that one, too.

Undeniably, we do on occasion need an independent accounting role-making body to determine standards for new accounting issues. Not to malign our profession, but the beauty of accounting is that it really doesn't change that much. It's not like medical science, which needs to constantly...