The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) was
established in April 1984 as the authoritative accounting standard-setting body
for state and local governmental entities in the United States. There are over
87,000 state and local entities in the country and for the most part these
entities are required to comply with the generally accepted accounting
principles established by the GASB. Therefore, the standards promulgated by the
GASB are significant. On June 30, 2009, the GASB completed its 25th year of
standard setting. Because of its influence and the importance of its mission, a
better understanding of the GASB and its accomplishments during its first 25
years of existence may be helpful.
Two research papers (Part 1 and Part 2) provide a complete sequential
treatment of the GASB’s operational history through the end of its first
quarter century. The first paper begins with an historical perspective about
municipal accounting issues from colonial times to 1934. The origin of
professional self-determining standards is the feature of the second paper,
identifying standard-setting bodies that contributed to municipal accounting
from 1934 to 1984. The early activities of the GASB are then reviewed. Two
appendices are provided to detail the composition of the Board during its first
quarter century, along with biographical information about the early Board
members and later Chair and Vice Chair personnel.
The first paper concludes with a review of the relationship
of other governmental standard setting bodies at the federal level and the
international level. The second paper provides an overview of the future
challenges faced by the GASB and supplies a digest of the standards including
appendix and a synoptic summary of the standards the Board has promulgated by
topic and by standard number.
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| Gary J. Previts |
For more information, read the
article “The First Quarter Century of the GASB (1984–2009): A Perspective on
Standard Setting” by Helen M. Roybark, Edward N. Coffman and Gary
J. Previts.
Part 1 of this article was published in ABACUS (Volume 48, Issue 1, pages 1–30, March 2012) and Part 2 was published in ABACUS (Volume 48,
Issue 2, pages 147–198, June 2012).
In addition, refer to the article “The GASB Marks 25 Years of Standards-Setting” published in June 2009 on the GASB website.
