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Abstract: 

The new disclosure requirements brought about by the issuance of Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement No. 34: Basic Financial Statements—and Management’s Discussion and Analysis—for State and Local Governments have provided new information for users of government financial reports. This study reports the results of a survey of users of government financial reporting, specifically members of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts, asking for their perceptions about whether the new information provided by Statement No. 34 is valuable in their analyses, whether they perceive that it has improved financial reporting by governments, and how they utilize the information provided. Survey results indicate that analysts widely perceive that the Statement No. 34 reporting model has improved overall financial reporting by governments but that they still rely more on fund reporting than government-wide statements. The MD&A is perceived to be the most beneficial new component of the reporting model when it is not boilerplate.

Keywords: GASB Statement No. 34; municipal disclosure; municipal analysts; municipal bonds; MD&A; government-wide financial statements

Affiliations:  1: Fairfield University.