We’ve written for years about why government budgets and claims of “balanced budgets” are fraudulent. The problem is that budgets count borrowed money and asset sales as if they are income, and ignore growing debts like pension liabilities.
Testimony has been taken recently on this issue by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, which is finally focused on it. Lots of Illinoisans and big names testified to the same criticisms we have.
Video is linked here. You can view the individual testimony at the time links here– 0:00 Sheila Weinberg, 34:45 Bill Bergman, 1:17:21 Joe Kent, 1:48:38 Richard Skiba, 2:13:21 Paul B. Kazarian, 2:42:30 Ed Bachrach, 3:09:08 Barrett Peterson, 3:39:02 David Walker, 4:09:09 Jeanne Ives, 4:41:02 Grover Norquist, 5:08:02 Bob Fioretti, 5:35:30 Mary Pat Campbell, 6:05:02 Leslie Munger, 6:33:35 Sharon Lassar, 7:01:09 Andy Shaw.
This is wonky but it is key to how Illinoisans got duped over many years, blinded to the growing fiscal crisis. If you don’t know about this issue, watch at least the first testimony by Sheila Weinberg, who has been leading the charge.
-Mark Glennon
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Excellent, listed to a lot of this. How can one claim to be a woke/ blm/equality progressive and NOT fully embrace full accural gov accounting. Especially when the country’s socialized programs you are a proponent of emulating use accural accounting (international accounting standards), like Canada, France, etc? Especially if you are a Illinois gov employee woke progressive? Answer –you can’t. These folks are simply the worst hypocrite users..and the folks in the press aren’t any differnt for serving as enablers
I always refer to the gov employee woke as —THE FAKE PROGRESSIVES
While GASB distances itself from budgetary practices, GFOA hands out its Distinguished Budget Award to local govts where the implication is that they must follow GASB rules. For example, the award focuses on Funds without mentioning what else elected officials might need to know about overall financial performance, e.g., explanations of what the General Fund would look like (primarily GF), if it was reported on a full accrual basis. Also, criteria includes an explanation of “the basis of budgeting for all funds, whether cash, modified accrual, or some other statutory basis.” Again, to get the award, you have to follow… Read more »
Dupes means deceived we weren’t duped we knew is was BS but there’s not a d… thing we could do about it. Borrowing money and only counting the payment as debt is just fraud.
If you really want to see something that is extremely informative, take a look at Paul B. Kazarian’s presentation. Wow. Most of us here can feel that some dark clouds are gathering, but he makes it crystal clear. At the federal government level it was astounding to me how much value has been lost via excessive government spending per citizen. It goes back to the old econ 101 textbook — Every inefficient dollar the government spends, is a dollar stolen from private sector use and wealth creation. And since we are not even paying for it yet, we have no… Read more »
Yes, and, it’s critical to note that one of Paul’s conclusions is that the current GASB position on financial statements and cash basis accounting are “counter productive…value destructive.” GASB Chair asks: ‘Is this harmful?’ Answer, per Paul and others is absolutely YES because it is antiquated and easily leads to bad mgt and political decisions.
I watched Sheila Weinberg’s presentation and then the Q&A. She’s clearly on the ball. But then I had to endure the “questions” from the GASB, and I found myself answering their questions to myself, before they even finished. I get it…they have to sound engaged. And I don’t know if this is just softball theater, or if these questions were sincere. But the first question, where the former “finance officer of an Illinois government” asked if by taking away the “short term perspective” we would be “eliminating transparency?” For all of you government people out there: It’s called a Cash… Read more »
In answer to your question, they are bought off by governments. They are an association of government accountants who are paid by and produce the financial reports governments want them to produce. The system is corrupt.
GASB likes the status quo. They do not appear to see the problems articulated by those who wrote letters and testified. If they do see the problem, they insist that it is already addressed in the combined statement. In other words, they look at the shortcomings in govt fund types and conclude “There’s nothing to see here.” There is no incentive for GASB to change. They know what disruption this will cause. The cost of change is too expensive. They probably won’t even support requiring a statement that govt fund types are not a good indication of financial condition. They… Read more »
We’re currently being duped by the Comptrollers Office when they tell us the bill backlog is X dollars but leave out the loans we took out the get that backlog down to X dollars.
In 2017, the state took out a $6 billion GO bond to pay down the backlog. What are the terms of that bond, 5/10/20 years? What is the remaining balance? Where the hell do I find it on the state’s CAFR?
The CAFR is late.
You can set your watch to late CAFR’s around here. But I did try to find this bond on the latest CAFR posted and couldn’t find it.