Administration Archives - Page 3 of 4

Category: Administration (page 3 of 4)

Introducing the 2017-2018 Finance Calendar of Duties

The UNC School of Government has just posted its most recent Local Finance Bulletin, the 2017-2018 Finance Calendar of Duties for City and County Officials, prepared by Gregory S. Allison. This annual publication is a monthly guide for finance and budgeting officials on all statutory and regulatory reporting and administrative responsibilities. The finance calendar has been a publication of the School of Government for decades and is an online, free resource for finance officers, budget officers, clerks, and other administrative officials.

North Carolina’s County and Municipal Fiscal Analysis Tool: Research Review

June 26, 2017 / Whitney Afonso / 0 Comments

Have you ever used the County and Municipal Fiscal Analysis tool that is housed on Treasurer’s website? It allows municipalities and counties in the state to see how they are doing with regard to financial condition and compare their performance to peers. It has recently become the focus of new research coming from colleagues at the University of South Dakota and Indiana University. Ed Gerrish and Luke Spreen presented their research on our benchmarking tool earlier this month at the Public Management Research Conference and it is forthcoming at the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. In this Research Review I am going to discuss their research and pull a few findings that are especially notable for those of you that work in budgeting and finance.

Communicating and Sharing Information

May 17, 2017 / Kimberly Simpson / 0 Comments

As this year’s North Carolina Association of Assessing Officers (NCAAO) President, I’ve tried to make good communication one of my priorities. Across North Carolina, we have received appeals from common taxpayers. There are a lot of them. We can call them multi-jurisdiction taxpayers and define them as individual taxpayers with real and personal property in more than one jurisdiction. It only makes sense for that taxpayer to keep track of how each of us responds to appeals. Which of us concede easily? Which of us have accurate data and can defend our values? Are there any counties that do not have the financial or other resources available to defend values?

Appraisal and Reappraisal. Just Do It?

May 11, 2017 / Kirk Boone / 0 Comments

In late 2014, just after joining the SOG, the NCDOR included me in the initial discussions among assessors about North Carolina’s reappraisal standards. This blog post includes some of the thoughts and questions that I shared with the group at that time. Please keep in mind that this post is written informally, from my perspective during late 2014. I was discussing with the committee, mainly through emails, whether the assessment system our taxpayers deserve was being delivered. On the other side of an inadequate reappraisal, I wasn’t sure our lawmakers in Raleigh would accept an excuse of, “We weren’t given the needed resources”. I’ll refer again back to this related blog post on ways to request what is needed.

Crowdsourcing for Local Governments: Research Review

April 24, 2017 / Whitney Afonso / 1 Comment

Research Review is a place for me to bring you academic research that I think might be of interest or relevant to you all. It is not necessarily the Cliff notes of the paper, but it will present some key findings or insights from the paper.

Are you a Tax Administrator or a Tax Supervisor? Of course you aren’t

April 12, 2017 / Kirk Boone / 2 Comments

Try this online exercise. Go to Chapter 105 of the North Carolina General Statutes. Here’s a link. Once there, most browsers will allow a search feature. A common way to search in many software applications is to press the <Ctrl> key +F. Now search all of Chapter 105 for “tax administrator”. It doesn’t exist. But there are lots of tax administrators in North Carolina, right? Now search all of Chapter 105 for “tax supervisor”. The tax supervisor is referenced 9 times in the Machinery Act. And if you read the context of those references, there are a few important roles involved there. How many counties have a tax supervisor to fulfill these roles?

There are two sides to every coin: Or is there Common Sense about Cost Accounting in Government?

March 20, 2017 / Zach Mohr / 0 Comments

In the 1990s there was a wave of euphoria about cost accounting and particularly Activity Based Costing (ABC). One book in particular stands out in my mind as particularly euphoric: Common Cents: The ABC Performance Breakthrough by Stephen Turney. While it had a clever title, few people remember this book now, but many people remember ABC. Many finance and budget managers do not recall ABC with fondness. In fact, when government budget and finance managers are asked about the use of ABC in their organizations now, most will say that they are not using it. However, when asked if they are doing some form of cost accounting, the measure is much higher. In this post, I explore why budget and finance managers are willing to say that they are doing cost accounting and not ABC. I further explore (and mix) the metaphor of common sense/cents about cost accounting by thinking of its uses as two sides of the same coin.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall, How much revenue will we generate this fall?

February 27, 2017 / Whitney Afonso / 0 Comments

Yup, you guessed it, today’s blog post is on revenue forecasting! My current blog series is about some of the non-legal finance issues that are out there and revenue forecasting, while required by law, is a really important one! There are many people that are involved with revenue forecasting in local governments. While many outside of government may just assume that there is some accountant or budget wonk sitting in a back room who is somehow magically able (or has some very scientific formula) to predict how much money is going to be coming in next year, we know better.

Planning for success (Part 2)

January 13, 2017 / Kirk Boone / 0 Comments

Last month, I started the discussion with Part 1 of this topic. Near the conclusion of Part 1, I hoped for some questions and what-ifs. I got ‘em, and I hope this month’s post will provide some insight.

Are all North Carolina County Property Tax Appraisers Subject to USPAP?

November 14, 2016 / Kirk Boone / 3 Comments

This is the exact question that I was asked recently.

“Are all North Carolina, county, ad valorem, real estate appraisers subject to the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP)?”

This could be a very short blog post. The answer to the question is, “no”. But a different question, “Should all North Carolina county ad valorem appraisers comply with USPAP?” leads to a more in depth discussion. The answer to that question is, “yes”. I believe if you act as an appraiser, you should comply with USPAP.