In recent years accounting standard setters and professional bodies have issued directives aimed at improving the transparency and accessibility of financial reports compiled by government agencies. This study examines the availability and accessibility of local government financial reports on the Internet for a sample of 300 U.S. municipalities of varying size. Results indicate that provision of financial reports is more prominent among larger cities. Cities with higher income per capita and higher levels of accounting disclosure are also more likely to provide financial reports on the Internet. The accessibility of the financial data reported on the Internet is positively related to the number of residents, resident income per capita, and level of debt and financial position of the municipality.

Recent news articles about pension funding issues highlight the importance of transparent financial reporting and disclosures for defined benefit pension plans. Using pension-related data for local governments in Michigan and Pennsylvania, we provide descriptive evidence regarding the actuarial methods and assumptions adopted and the factors that explain a government's propensity to adopt optimistic actuarial methods and assumptions that reduce the annual required contribution. Our descriptive data suggests that actuaries are making aggressive assumptions for some governments' pension benefits. Our regression results also suggest there is an association between monitoring mechanisms, fiscal constraints, and socioeconomic factors and the choice of optimistic actuarial methods and assumptions that reduce the annual required contribution. The GASB should consider our findings as they determine whether existing standards should be clarified or whether allowable actuarial methods and assumptions should be restricted.

SYNOPSIS GASBS No. 34 represents a dramatic shift in the way state and local governments report and present general infrastructure assets. Using Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports for the 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, we find that financial statement users are unable to determine the extent of retroactive capitalization of these assets due to the lack of detailed disclosures provided by these governments. Comparing the status of infrastructure assets among the governments is also extremely difficult because governments using depreciation accounting have significant variation in the maximum useful lives of these assets and governments choosing the modified approach use different measurement methods and baselines. Given the need for comparability across governments and Standard & Poor's concern about how governments identify capital assets and their depreciation assumptions and processes, we suggest the GASB explicitly require governments to disclose the extent that infrastructure assets are capitalized and consider whether it is feasible to provide a list of acceptable measurement scales and condition levels for the modified approach. We also suggest that government officials and auditors further examine whether governments are meeting the requirements of the modified approach and whether the useful lives adopted for depreciation accounting are consistent with the physical lives of these assets. By enhancing the reporting transparency for infrastructure assets, governments can significantly increase the usefulness of these disclosures.

The collection of accommodations taxes, generally paid by nonresident visitors, has become a well-accepted means of raising tax revenues in tourism communities. This article looks at small communities and counties across the State of South Carolina to determine categories of use that may provide local governments their best return on their expenditure of these funds. The findings, decidedly exploratory in nature, suggest that the use of accommodation tax funds for the promotion of the arts, cultural events, and other tourism-related events is a successful strategy, enabling tourism growth (as measured by growth in the accommodations sector) while hopefully fueling a virtuous cycle that yields still greater tourism dollars for the community.

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