Truth in Accounting
| Truth in Accounting | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Location: | Chicago, Illinois |
| Type: | 501(c)(3) |
| Top official: | Shiela Weinberg, CEO |
| Founder(s): | Shiela Weinberg |
| Year founded: | 2002 |
| Website: | Official website |
| Promoted policies | |
| State budget reform | |
Truth in Accounting (TIA) is a 501(c)(3), nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Chicago, Illinois. The organization was founded by Sheila Weinberg, a former Certified Public Accountant, in 2002. TIA seeks to make government finances public, with the aim that citizens will be better informed about the state of government spending and force more transparency with regard to government budgets.[1]
Mission
According to the Truth in Accounting website, the group's mission is as follows:[1]
| “ |
To educate and empower citizens with understandable, reliable, and transparent government financial information.[2] |
” |
Background
Truth in Accounting was founded in 2002 by Sheila Weinberg in Chicago, Illinois. In her career as an accountant, Weinberg gained much experience in government budgeting and accounting. Additionally, she testified multiple times before the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board and the Government Accounting Standards Board. This experience served as a catalyst for her to encourage transparency and reliability in government finances.[3]
Work
TIA has several project areas, including a Federal Project, a Municipality Study, and the larger State Data Lab.[4]
Federal project
The Federal Project launched in 2015, and explores a different theme within federal financial reporting each month. As of the end of March 2016, the federal project focused on three key topics:
- The State of the Union: Weinberg argued that President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on January 13, 2016, failed to acknowledge financial specifics with regard to entitlements and other financial figures.[5]
- Obama's Sixth Missed Budget Deadline: TIA argued that the Obama administration failed to meet basic budgetary guidelines, and demonstrated the ways in which the administration failed. TIA stated the administration failed to include "outstanding liabilities" in the national debt; according to TIA, such liabilities include welfare programs and social services. Other areas of poor performance, according to TIA, include the administration’s failure to create a timely budget, failure to accurately disclose Social Security liabilities, misrepresenting finances to create the appearance of a balanced budget, and a general lack of transparency.[6]
- Off to a Bad Start: According to TIA, in the first quarter of 2016, the "federal government flunked its audit for the 19th time," the President missed his budget deadline, and Obama gave his State of the Union address "without the federal financial audit," which was completed in February 2016.[7]
Financial State of the States
For six consecutive years, Truth in Accounting (TIA) has completed a comprehensive review of the financial reports of all 50 states to provide citizens with a clear picture of their governments’ financial conditions. Each state was ranked according to its “taxpayer burden,” a metric that TIA calculates which expresses the state’s total unfunded bills on a per-taxpayer basis. Despite an improvement in the economy and financial markets, the amount of bills accumulated by the states has not significantly decreased. States still have almost $1.3 trillion of unfunded debt, accumulated despite balanced budget requirements in 49 of the 50 states.[8]
To view the September 2015 Financial State of the States report, click here
Municipality studies
TIA conducts local and municipal government assessments to determine the financial state of various cities across the country. Thus far, the study has assessed the top 10 largest cities by population, and local governments in Michigan, Denver, and Cook County, Illinois.[9]
The Michigan study, according to TIA, showed that "Michigan’s local governments are in a financial hole and do not have the money needed to pay all of their bills." The study of 10 local governments concluded that the most of the debt is derived from unfunded pensions and other retirement benefits that have been excluded from the cities' accounting.[10]
In TIA's assessment of the Denver, Colorado metro area, which included 63 local governments and school districts, the organization found that 43 entities were financially sound, but that 20 were in "financial holes." According to TIA, some local governments failed to record a total of $10 billion in retirement benefits. The report also concluded that all 13 school districts in the metro area were in a "financial hole." As with their Michigan study, TIA argues that "[p]romised pension and retirement health care benefits" are the source of financial liability.[11]
The Cook County, Illinois, study, which examined 518 tax districts including Chicago, found that all 518 districts have a collective debt of $34 billion. According to TIA, the source of most of the debt comes from unfunded pension liabilities and healthcare benefits, and high pay grades for government and government contract employees.[12]
State Data Lab
State Data Lab is TIA’s database, which adds context to TIA data and analysis with tools and external data for context. According to the project's website, the State Data Lab is meant to serve as a resource for "citizens, the press, legislators and staff, think tanks and financial analysts" and to give a clearer picture of states' financial status.The project provides demographic information, economic data, and quantitative resources to augment the state-by-state financial data sets.[13]
The site allows visitors to construct custom data sets according to state, data points, including population, education, class, election, or crime statistics; economic figures via employment income, organized labor, government spending, or business incentives; and TIA-specific data points, including assets, retirement liabilities, bills, taxpayer burden and other liabilities.[14]
Other projects
Transparency Projects
The organization exposed the discrepancies in the federal deficit, showing that the government owed $2.5 trillion in federal liabilities for 2007 instead of the $162 billion the government officially announced.[15]
Statewide fiscal transparency pledge
The group has also been involved in asking the Illinois legislature to sign off on a transparency pledge that asks the legislature to enact the following:[16]
- Have the Comptroller of the State of Illinois audit, prepare and release to the public the CAFR within six months after the close of each fiscal year
- Have the State Comptroller issue the estimated deficit that will appear on the CAFR if that budget was implemented at least three days before the final vote on the budget in each Chamber
- Issue a press release to announce the estimated government-wide deficit before voting on the budget proposal
- Advocate "three days of sunshine" provision be followed to thus ensure true transparency in the budgetary process.
National debt
TIA also tracks the national debt, recording the published national debt according to the federal government and the "truth" debt according to TIA. TIA includes reported, but not included by the federal government, assets, liabilities, and unfunded Social Security and Medicare.[17]
Leadership
Below is the list of the TIA Board of Directors, as of April 2016:[18]
- Bill Obenshain, Chairman
- Donald N. Adler
- Rosanne Dineen
- Rick Jasculca
- Peter J. Karahalios
- John P. Kayser
- Vince Kolber
- Phil Lumpkin
- Dawn H. Miller
- Cheryl Red
- Kevin Rochford
- Jeff Rubenstein
- Terry Savage
- Kevin Edward White
- Thomas C. Wright
- Roger R. Nelson, Chairman Emeritus
- Dr. Sridhar Ramamoorti, Academic Advisor
- Dennis H. Chookaszian, Board Advisor
- Mitchell Feiger, Board Advisor
- David M. Walker, Board Advisor
Finances
The following is a breakdown of the Truth in Accounting revenue from contributions and grants received, total revenue and expenses for the 2011-2014 fiscal years, as reported to the IRS.
| Contributions and grants received, total revenue and expenses for Truth in Accounting, 2011-2014 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tax Year | Contributions and grants received | Total annual revenue | Expenses |
| 2014[19] | $569,425 | $573,425 | $408,651 |
| 2013[20] | $372,187 | $380,187 | $365,073 |
| 2012[21] | $203,349 | $214,349 | $261,045 |
| 2011[21] | $119,512 | $123,576 | $203,875 |
Media
A selection of video clips by Truth in Accounting.
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 TIA, "About," accessed April 11, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributed to the original source.
- ↑ TIA, "Staff," accessed April 11, 2016
- ↑ TIA, "Resources," accessed April 11, 2016
- ↑ Town Hall, "Why Watch The State Of The Union If You’re Not Going To Talk About Entitlements?" January 26, 2016
- ↑ State Data Lab, "Obama’s Sixth Missed Budget Deadline," accessed April 11, 2016
- ↑ TIA, "Off to a Bad Start," March 14, 2016
- ↑ Truth in Accounting, "Financial State of the States," September 2015
- ↑ TIA, "Truth in Accounting Releases New Study on the Financial Condition of 10 Michigan Cities," December 17, 2014
- ↑ TIA, "Truth in Accounting Releases New Study on the Financial Condition of 10 Michigan Cities," December 17, 2014
- ↑ TIA, "Denver Study," accessed April 11, 2016
- ↑ State Data Lab, "The Municipal Government Debt Crisis," June, 2013
- ↑ State Data Lab, "About," accessed April 11, 2016
- ↑ State Data Lab, "State Data Comparisons," accessed April 11, 2016
- ↑ USA Today, "Taxpayers' bill leaps by trillions," May 19, 2008
- ↑ Truth in Accounting Transparency Pledge
- ↑ TIA, "Our Debt Clock," accessed April 11, 2016
- ↑ TIA, "Board of Directors," accessed April 11, 2016
- ↑ Guidestar, "Truth in Accounting, IRS Form 990 (2014)," accessed April 11, 2016
- ↑ Guidestar, "Truth in Accounting, IRS Form 990 (2013)," accessed April 11, 2016
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Guidestar, "Truth in Accounting, IRS Form 990 (2012)," accessed April 11, 2016
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