Public Affairs 6505: Skills: Governmental Accounting

By the end of this course, students should successfully be able to:

• Explain the accounting principles for governmental entities and how they differ from the private sector. 
• Describe the basic financial statements issued by governmental entities and the information communicated by each.  
• Perform basic analysis of financial information provided by governmental entities, including budgetary calculations, benchmarking, rate-setting (e.g. utility rates), economic development analysis (e.g. TIFs), and various types of tax analysis.
• Analyze the fiscal health of a governmental entity. 
• Communicate basic financial information to stakeholders, including legislative bodies, citizens, rating agencies, and other interested parties. 

Mode of delivery: This course is online synchronous.  Students are expected to log-in to Carmen for our set class times. 

Attendance and participation requirements: Because this is an online course, your attendance is based on your online activity and participation. The following is a summary of students’ expected participation:

• Participating in class: weekly, live online classes
• Participating in discussion forums: weekly
  As part of your participation, each week you can expect to contribute at least once as part of our class discussion on the week's topics.  This is a fast-paced course, so we’ll use in-class and out-of-class time to keep on track. 
• Office hours: optional

Reading materials may be required for this course. Consult your instructor's syllabus for details.

Assignments must be submitted to the correct Carmen Dropbox by 11:59 p.m. on the due date.  Full credit will be awarded to assignments that are correctly and thoughtfully completed and submitted on time.  Late work will not be accepted without thorough explanation.

• Class Participation: 25%
• Group Project and Presentation: 35%
• Financial Statement Analysis: 40%

Class participation is essential for this course.  Grading for class participation will be based on factors such as quality of participation, interest, online attendance, and level of participation with collaborative projects.  Absences will negatively impact students’ ability to participate in the class, which will result in a lower grade.

Small working groups will be assigned during class. Students will be asked to take on the role of a municipal CFO and evaluate a proposal for an economic development project.  Using a detailed case study, groups will analyze the benefits and costs of the proposal and produce a recommendation.

Full instructions will be posted on Carmen.  Each individual student will be responsible for approximately five (5) double-spaced pages.  As a group, students will prepare a brief virtual presentation summarizing their analysis and recommendation (approximately five minutes).  To encourage full participation by all team members, students will be asked to submit an evaluation of the performance and contribution of each member of the team. 

Using a government’s comprehensive annual financial report, budget document, and other relevant reports, students will analyze the financial statements with traditional financial analysis tools as described throughout the course. 

Students will be asked to write a professional report, in the style of a rating agency report, to answer a set of prompts.  The prompts will guide the student through a series of questions assessing the fiscal condition of the government, including demographic and economic indicators, revenues, expenditures, the debt portfolio, a risk assessment, and other components of a comprehensive fiscal analysis.  Yes/no answers will not be sufficient; students will need to provide analysis, evidence of interpretation, and citations.  Total pages should not exceed fifteen (15) double-spaced pages.  Further instructions will be given in a handout during class.