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SUMMARY <br /> W <br /> Without reservation, we believe that transparency and accountability of the use of public funds to citizens and other <br /> stakeholders is paramount. We applaud the Legislature in its efforts to ensure that the citizens of Florida and of its local <br /> governments are beneficiaries of financial accountability and wise use of resources. The current proposed UCOA <br /> reporting requirements, while well intentioned, is not the solution for the reasons discussed in this white paper, <br /> including: the autonomy of state and local government entities; risk of lack of quality and incomparable data; conflicts <br /> with current established reporting requirements both annually and more frequently; different bases of accounting and <br /> different purposes for which each entity exists; and most crucial, the duplication of effort and the implementation cost <br /> to the taxpayer that places extraordinary burdens on local government entities with no resources to accommodate <br /> these burdens. In our opinion, the cost to implement the UCOA far exceeds any benefit that might accrue to the <br /> taxpayer as a result. <br /> We recommend an alternative strategy that could accomplish the Legislature's goal to ensure transparency and <br /> accountability while limiting the burden to governmental entities and preserving the autonomy of those entities. <br /> Legislation should be enacted that prescribes minimum desired transparency reporting by local governments, leaves it <br /> to local governments to include such information on their websites,and does not impose significant financial burdens on <br /> local governments. <br /> By taking the more local approach, information provided by each local government on its web site would be easily <br /> accessible to the local constituency and would be in the same place that the local government currently publishes its <br /> budget documents and year end audited financial statements. This would provide better context and an enhanced <br /> historical perspective for the user to interpret the interim information. Additionally, the interim financial information <br /> would likely come straight from the local government's current financial management system and not require costly <br /> conversions or overlays necessary to convert it to a one size fits all approach as currently proposed. <br /> 14 <br /> 96 <br />