GRAVETTE — Tracy Sewell, city of Gravette business director, recently attended a four-day municipal finance seminar in Hot Springs conducted by the Arkansas Government Finance Office.

The seminar provided information for municipal finance personnel to acquaint them with state bookkeeping procedures and with new and possible upcoming changes.

Various topics discussed included sales and other taxes, unemployment regulations, leadership topics and especially “government and state standards which are often changing,” Sewell said.

“Information provided can so often be overlooked by smaller cities or may not be immediately available,” she said.

Sewell noted that notmany smaller cities from throughout the state had representatives at the sessions which she said “were very informative and educational.”

She noted it is difficult for smaller cities to accurately forecast income, particularly sales tax revenues, since all such information is protected by confidentiality laws.

Because of fluctuation from month to month andyear to year it is hard to plan city budgets, particularly hard when revenues do not meet expected amounts.

Arkansas does not provide a finance manual for cities which would be a great asset for newly elected personnel who handle city finances.

Gravette has joined with several other Arkansas cities with the aim of compiling such a document, Sewell said.

News, Pages 8 on 08/22/2012