Plan for a standard form of municipal reports to be published annually by towns in in the Commonwealth

What the citizens of the towns and cities must have, if they are to vote intelligently concerning their community\u27s affairs, are intelligible and prompt reports covering the transactions of the year, to be sent to voters before the annual town meeting. These must be arranged in such standardized form that each subdivision of the accounts will be comparable with similar subdivisions in other towns\u27 reports. The same words must mean the same things and not quite different things, as is frequently the case now. Such impartial, standard and prompt reports can be provided only under mandatory laws of the States. By such laws the municipalities must be required: (1) to publish such reports within a time limit; (2) to publish them in specific forms adjusted to towns and cities of various classes. These forms must be designed by a State bureau. Possibly, in Massachusetts, the proposed Department of Municipal Affairs, now under consideration by the Recess Commission, would assume this function. To this end, Harvey S. Chase, C. P. A., a member of the Special Committee of the Massachusetts Branch, has devised a form of annual report suitable for towns and, in enlarged form, for cities

Budgets and balance sheets: The practical application of sound accounting principles and methods to municipal book-keeping

My experience among cities both large and small and in various parts of the United States during the last fifteen years has led me to certain conclusions from which I find myself unable to escape, and one of these conclusions bears very closely upon this matter of Capital and Revenue in municipal accounts. In fact, it appears to me that we do have, and must necessarily have, in city affairs the same distinctions in classes of accounts which are represented by these titles Capital and Revenue in commercial affairs. It will be found impractical to install sound accounting methods in municipalities, in my opinion, unless these distinctions are recognized, whatever be the titles given to these different classes of accounts. The word Capital is not a satisfactory term to apply to municipal accounts. For this reason I have coined and used the word Non-revenue. The term Revenue, however, and Revenue Account, used in very much the same sense as a Profit and Loss account is used in commercial affairs, is one of the most essential features of a proper installation of sound methods of accounting in cities. Of this I am fully convinced, and for this reason: While, as the authority I have quoted says, The question of \u27Gain\u27 or \u27Profit\u27 finds no proper place in municipal accounts, the question of Surplus or Deficiency of revenue is an exceedingly important item in such accounts. This question, whether or not the revenue pertaining to a fiscal period is in excess of the expenditure which that revenue is supposed to meet, is one of the fundamental questions which a proper system of accounts in a municipality should exhibit, and should exhibit so clearly as to be without question. The corollary of this statement is evident. If the current revenue has not provided for the current running expenses of the city, then borrowed money must be used to supply this deficiency, and such borrowed money can be liquidated only out of future revenues. Thereby such deficiencies of the present become unwarrantable burdens upon the tax-payers of the future

Business management of municipalities

The rapid advances during the last quarter century in the development of scientific principles underlying the management of commercial enterprises, have led more than one citizen to the question, Why does not our city or town manage its business along the same efficient business lines? Officials and others have attempted to answer this question by pointing out that a government is not conducted for profit; it has nothing to sell; it does not encounter keen competition; there is no capital invested upon which a return is expected. Therefore, it is argued, business principles do not apply. While these premises are, on the whole, truthfully stated, the conclusion drawn is fallacious, for, as a matter of fact, cities and business concerns are alike in very many respects

Executive budget in relation to governmental accounting -- The sinews of war... and peace!

How can sinews of war have anything to do with The Executive Budget? Why should peace be contrasted with sinews of war and then correlated to the government! Sinews of war is old as a quotation, almost as old as war itself. The financing of the belligerent powers is before our eyes, the sinews peer at us from the pages of every paper. We, as people, are interested in these sinews not primarily as those of war but as those of peace. How ought we to be interested intelligently in the sinews of peace, then! What demands ought we to make upon our government so that we, the citizens, may be more intelligently informed and so that we may be more efficiently served by the ever-spreading branches of the government of the nation! There is a term now in common use which is the key to this desired information and to this efficiency. It is a much abused term and a much misunderstood term. It is expressed in the shortest way by the word budget or, better, by the words the executive budget. What then, is an executive budget? Why should such a dry-as-dust appellation be emphasized as an all-important function of government, now almost wholly neglected