The purpose of this bulletin is to update and revisit our 1994 bulletin. This revision includes additional guidance on the types of liabilities that should be included as part of the compensated absences liability, clarifies the differences between current and long-term compensated absences liabilities, and discusses funding for compensated absences as it applies to the General Municipal Law (GML) §6-p “Employee Benefit Accrued Liability Reserve Fund (EBALR).”

State law requires that all deposits and investments with banks or trust companies (e.g., checking accounts, time deposit accounts, certificates of deposit, etc.) in excess of FDIC coverage be properly secured.

The purpose of this bulletin is to provide LOSAP sponsors model notes that should be included with their annual financial reports. These notes will provide increased disclosure about the financial condition and operations of LOSAP’s. Revised August 2008 (Originally Issued January 2008)

Model Notes:
Defined Benefit Plans [pdf]
Defined Contribution Plans [pdf]

GASB Statement 48 makes a distinction between sales of receivables and future revenues, and the pledging of receivables or future revenues to repay a collateralized borrowing. The distinction is important because the cash received from a borrowing would result in a liability while the cash received from a sale would most likely be recorded as revenue or deferred revenue, depending on the transaction.

GASB Statement No. 49, Accounting and Financial Reporting for Pollution Remediation Obligations. This statement explains when a government would be required to report a liability in its financial statements related to cleaning up pollution or contamination. The statement also establishes a probability weighted method that a government would be required to use to determine the estimated amount of pollution obligation liabilities that would be reported in its financial statements.

This bulletin highlights changes to fire district accounting and reporting requirements, and clarifies the new auditing requirements.

Section 10 of the New York State General Municipal Law was amended in 2005 to authorize an additional option for local governments to secure deposits and temporary investment of public funds. Under the new law, local governments have the option to accept as security a pledge of a pro rata portion of a "pool" of eligible securities. Local governments that choose to utilize the new pooled collateral option must take necessary steps to ensure that their deposits and investment are properly secure.

This bulletin highlights accounting and budgeting changes for counties who share their own sales tax revenues with other local governments within their boundaries. These changes are necessitated by the recent Statements from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB).

This bulletin highlights the Medicare Part D Federal prescription drug benefits program and provides appropriate accounting guidance for Federal subsidies received under this program.

A new law was enacted (Chapter 58 of the Laws of 2005) to "cap" county Medicaid costs at calendar 2005 levels and limit growth rates to 3.5 percent in 2006 and 3.25 percent in 2007.

The purpose of this bulletin is to amend our January 2001 bulletin entitled ‘Tobacco Settlement Payments’ based upon the release of GASB Technical Bulletin No. 2004-1 ‘Tobacco Settlement Recognition and Financial Reporting Entity Issues.’

The purpose of this bulletin is to inform local government officials of the establishment of new revenue and appropriation codes to account for and report homeland security aid and related expenditures.

This bulletin explains the reporting requirements for advance refunding bonds. Many school districts are issuing advance refunding bonds this year because the state is changing how it calculates and pays building aid. Building aid, rather than being based on actual debt service payments, will now be based on an "assumed amortization calculation" that assumes that districts borrow money for the maximum period of probable usefulness allowed by Local Finance Law section 11.00 and pays an assumed interest rate. Details are on the State Education Department's website.

The objective of the project was to provide a financial reporting model that provides users of financial statements with information which will enhance their understanding of governmental operations and ultimately result in an increased accountability by the governmental units.

GASB Statement No. 34 makes significant changes to the accounting and reporting requirements for expendable and nonexpendable trusts. The statement eliminates the designation of expendable and nonexpendable trust funds and creates new funds based on the ability to use these resources for governmental purposes.

GASB Statement No. 33 provides accounting and reporting guidelines for nonexchange transactions. A nonexchange transaction is one in which a government receives (or gives) value without directly giving (or receiving) equal value in exchange.

Chapter 497 of the Laws of 1999 amends the Vehicle and Traffic Law effective onApril 1, 2000 to provide that every county and the City of New York shall establish a handicapped parking education program for the purpose of providing education, advocacy and increased public awareness of handicapped parking laws.

Since 1990 the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC), through its revolving loan fund, has provided over 330 local governments and public authorities nearly $5 billion in long and short term loans to finance eligible clean water and drinking water projects.

This bulletin describes the types of loans that are currently available from the revolving fund (long term leverage loans, short term direct loans, and long term direct loans) and the proper accounting treatment for each loan type.

Changes in Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 457 require local governments to hold deferred compensation in trust for employees and their beneficiaries. Previously, IRC Section 457 required that these assets remained the property of the employer until paid or made available to the participant; as such, they were held in an agency capacity and were subject to the claims of the government’s general creditors.

Legislation requested by the State Comptroller (Chapter 465, Laws of 1998) permits town and village courts, who meet certain criteria, to transmit monthly receipts to the Chief Fiscal Officer (CFO) without first sending them to the State for distribution. Previously, courts had to send the moneys they collected to the State Comptroller, who, on a quarterly basis, sent the local share back to the municipalities. 1996 legislation created a temporary pilot program for up to 100 municipalities, but this 1998 legislation makes the program permanent and opens it up to all municipalities who have the capacity to file reports electronically and meet other criteria. This gives localities access to their revenues sooner and improves their cash flow.