Cities, States Flag Costs of Infrastructure Accounting Proposals

Finance officials from cities and states across the US have raised concerns over compliance costs for proposed updates to how governments value their bridges, tunnels, and roads in financial statements.

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board’s proposals on infrastructure assets risk unduly burdening governments that are already struggling with resource constraints, according to feedback in comment letters due last week. State associations, accounting firms, and municipal leaders pointed to the potential for increased expenses from added legwork by auditors and engineers to estimate details like a piece of infrastructure’s remaining lifespan.

Smaller governments may lack necessary expertise to perform such assessments, ...