ADAPTING GASB 34 FOR WATER UTILITY RATE-MAKING

摘要

When the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued its Statement No. 34 in June 1999, it intended to implement change. For accountants, certified public accountants, chief financial officers, and other financial professionals, the new guidelines brought about fundamental changes in the way that municipal governments prepare and present their annual financial reports. These changes, of course, were intentional, and the GASB must have expected, if not fully anticipated, many of the questions related to the implementation of the new standard. At present, the complete effects of GASB 34 are still unknown. In addition, it is likely that many unintended effects arising from the new standards have yet to be discovered. It is doubtful, for instance, that the GASB could have anticipated the questions that municipal water utility managers would have regarding the new standards. With the implementation of GASB 34 behind them, many water utility managers are now wondering how the new reporting standard will affect the determination of water rates under the framework established by Principles of Water Rates, Fees, and Charges (AWWA Manual M1, 2002). The answer to that question rests more with the principles of utility rate-making as presented in AWWA Manual Ml than it does with the GASB. For an understanding of why this is true, it is perhaps best to first examine just what GASB 34 is and, more important, what it is not.