Accounting standards

Joe Torsella said the online tool will help portray long-term drivers of the state’s financial picture.

This revision represents an update of Statement 34 issued in June 1999.

State auditors will continue to be represented on the Governmental Accounting Standards Board after Chairman David Vaudt ends his term June 30 although not as the chairman.

GASB’s final guidance on the Replacement of Interbank Offered Rates is expected to be issued in March, giving state and municipal governments plenty of time to make adjustments before Libor is phased out by the end of 2021.

The exposure draft, Replacement of Interbank Offered Rates, proposes removal of all inter-bank offered rates as an appropriate benchmark interest rate effective for reporting periods beginning after Dec. 15, 2020.

GASB is taking action because changing the reference rate on the hedge is ordinarily considered a termination event.

The state's net position worsened to negative $189.1 billion according to the CAFR, which arrived almost 14 months after fiscal 2018 ended.

State and local governments and trade groups have until Sept. 13 to submit comments on the 48-page exposure draft GASB released June 13.

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer received several awards for excellence in financial reporting.

The federal government shutdown has demonstrated the need for a more independent source of public finance for cities and urban counties.