As reported in The National Association of Counties’ Washington Watch, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board recently approved two Exposure Drafts that recommend requiring state and local governments to report other post-employment benefits (OPEB), such as retiree health insurance, on their financial statements. This week, GASB released the full text of the proposed standards for any individual or organization that wishes to review the standards and provide written comments on the documents. To view the Exposure Drafts, including full text and instructions for submitting comments, click here.

GASB chairman David Vaudt said the proposed standards “will provide a better picture of the costs and liabilities of these benefit promises,” according to Accounting Today.  As described,

He believes they will make the long-term costs and liabilities clearer to all stakeholders. The proposals also bring the standards for other post-employment benefits into line with those for the 2012 pension standards, requiring state and local governments to use the same actuarial method as is now required for pension reporting.

For more information, see the full story from Accounting Today.

A series of public hearings are also planned to enable GASB to obtain information from interested individuals and organizations about any of the issues discussed in the Exposure Drafts. The hearing dates and locations are as follows: September 10, 2014 in New York, September 11, 2014 in Chicago and September 12, 2014 in San Francisco. Additional information, including instructions for how to register to participate in any of the hearings, can be found within the Exposure Draft documents. For additional GASB resources on the OPEB project, click here.

For more information, contact Mike Belarmino at 202.942.4254 or Hadi Sedigh at 202.942.4213