Local Government Publications

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 revenue account code changes related to Child Welfare Funding in the 2002-03 State Budget.

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.

The purpose of this bulletin is two-fold:

• First, we want to assure those local governments not implementing GASB Statement No.34 that the upcoming adjustments that will be made to the fund level statements for 2002 fiscal year end reporting will not have a major impact on their record keeping and/or financial reporting to OSC. Our January 2001 accounting release focused on the changes associated with accounting and reporting of trust funds. Other changes, dealing with terminology and account codes changes, will be addressed in a future bulletin.
• Second, we want to provide those local governments contemplating implementation of GASB Statement No. 34 with some basic information about the fund financial statements that are the third element of the model. The following information is provided for those local governments contemplating the implementation of GASB Statement No. 34.

The purpose of this bulletin is to alert you to legislative changes requested by the State Comptroller that apply to budgets for fiscal years commencing on or after January 1, 2001 and to provide information that will help determine a reasonable level of fund balance for your government.

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.

The Risk Retention Fund (CS) was originally established to account for risk financing and insurance activity in a single fund using the modified accrual basis of accounting. As a result of pronouncements from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), the Risk Retention Fund (CS) will be eliminated from the Uniform System of Accounts for fiscal years ending after December 31, 2000.