Government Finance Officers Association of Texas

The Government Finance Officers Association of Texas (or GFOAT) is a professional association of state, county, and local government finance officers in Texas. The Government Finance Officers Association of Texas is the statewide organization serving all Texas municipal finance professionals, an affiliate of the nationwide Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). Membership is open to anyone in the State of Texas actively engaged in government finance in any city, county, or special district. Its stated mission is to enhance the quality of local government finance, to assist and support local government finance professionals in Texas, and to promote the public service profession. GFOAT members are actively involved in the key issues facing cities, counties, and special districts in the State of Texas.

The Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990(CFO Act) was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush. For each of 23 federal agencies, the position of chief financial officer was created. Since that time, federal efforts have been intended to improve the government's financial management and develop standards of financial performance and disclosure. Similar financial expectations exist at State and Local government levels.

The chief financial officer (CFO) of a public agency is the corporate officer primarily responsible for managing the financial risks of the business or agency. This officer is also responsible for budgeting, financial planning, record-keeping, cash flow management, higher management. communicating financial performance and forecasts to the community. The title may vary, such as finance director or treasurer, from agency to agency. The CFO typically reports to the city manager or other chief executive officer.

Financial reporting has multiple audiences, with a responsibility to citizens, taxpayers and voters to provide transparent accountability for use of public funds (taxes). Additionally, financial reporting must provide internal guidance to program managers to maintain budgetary control and to governing city councils and boards of directors to provide adequate financial policy guidelines.

The United States government in general has sought to improve the quality of financial reporting. The Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has a stated mission to "establish and improve standards of state and local governmental accounting and financial reporting that will result in useful information for users of financial reports and guide and educate the public, including issuers, auditors, and users of those financial reports." Pronouncements in particular have trended to incorporate more comparable elements of business-sector.

Role of GFOAT membership
Members are finance directors and treasurers of municipalities and other local government agencies, whether elected or appointed, having responsibility for collection, receipt, reporting, custody, investment or disbursement of municipal funds. Municipal funding sources are commonly property tax, sales tax, income tax, utility users tax (UUT), transient occupancy tax (hotel occupancy), and user fees such as licensing and permit fees.

Glenn Hegar is the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts of the State of Texas. The office of Texas State Treasurer was established in the Constitution of 1876. It superseded a similar office in the Republic of Texas. The treasurer was elected to serve for four years as head of the State Treasury Department. The office was abolished by Texas voters in 1995 and was formally closed in 1996, with duties taken over by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.

Texas has 254 counties, by far the most counties of any state. As of 2000, six Texas cities had populations greater than 500,000. The two largest are Dallas and Houston. Texas has the most cities with populations exceeding 1,000,000 of any state: Dallas, Houston, San Antonio. These three rank among the 10 most populous cities of the United States. Austin, Fort Worth, and El Paso are among the 25 largest U.S. cities. Texas has 25 metropolitan areas, four of which have populations greater than 1,000,000: Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Austin-Round Rock. The Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston metropolitan areas each has about 5 million residents.

Many city treasurers are elected, and are therefore directly accountable to their constituents; the remainder are appointed either by city council or city manager. Finance directors typically are appointed by the city manager.

In addition to cities and counties, Texas has numerous special districts. The most common is the independent school district, which (with one exception) has a board of trustees that is independent of any other governing authority. Other special districts include Groundwater Conservation Districts (regulatory agencies), river authorities, water supply districts (for irrigation or municipal supply), public hospitals, road districts and community colleges.

Professional standards setting
Certification is a guide for municipal finance directors and treasurers to become valued administrators in local government. GFOAT encourages professional certification for public finance directors and treasurers who meet standards of education, experience and commitment to a code of ethics. GFOAT offers its own post-nominal professional certificate, the Certified Government Finance Officer (CGFO) similar to the GFOA-administered the Certified Professional Finance Officer (CPFO), and Certified Government Financial Manager (CGFM) certification in Federal, State and Local Government Financial excellence from the Association of Government Accountants (AGA).

GFOAT code of ethics
All government finance officer members are enjoined to adhere to legal, moral and professional standards of conduct in the fulfillment of their professional responsibilities. Standards of professional conduct as set forth in this code are promulgated in order to enhance the performance of all persons engaged in public finance.:

Training and education in Texas finance and treasury
GFOAT's annual statewide conferences provide an array of education across many topics and alternate annually between various northern and southern cities.

Standing committees Financial Leadership is furthered by engaging in efforts to assist statewide finance officers to develop the skills and capabilities necessary to enable them to become organizational leaders as well as technical experts.

Resources
GFOAT seeks to facilitate interagency communication for the purposes of sharing information and best practices, cooperating with and complementing the services provided by other organizations to increase the effectiveness of all.

Like GFOA nationwide, GFOAT sponsors award programs designed to encourage good financial reporting in Texas, for financial documents including the Comprehensive annual financial report, or CAFR, and the annual budget.

GFOAT provides technology information and analytical tools to help governments identify and apply appropriate, economical technologies to support efficient resource allocation, quality services, and effective decision making and to promote citizen involvement.