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The Best Way to Predict the Future Is to Create It Financing the Future Shows How Financing the Future: Long-Term Financial Planning for Local Government Government Finance Officers Association www.estoregfoa.org 2007; 256 pages; $40/Members, $60/Nonmembers
From the start, Financing the Future: Long-Term Financial Planning for Local Government by Shayne Kavanagh places long-term financial planning for local governments (LTFP) in context: it is a vital component of a long-term strategic approach to governance. Armed with the knowledge of the long-term challenges that local governments are facing, Kavanagh's version of Lester Thurow's "tectonic plates," financial managers can use LTFP to assess current assets and work with the local government organization including elected officials, citizens, and other stakeholders - to adjust the operations of the organization to transform into an even stronger and healthier organization. If these sound like lofty goals, Kavanagh is deft at getting the reader to accept them and to see how it is possible for the typical organization to become a strategic organization.
Several consequences follow from such a perspective:
* LTFP is for managers and elected officials who think strategically. The whole point is to gain - and keep - a long-term eye on the condition and direction of the local government.
* The goal is to provide a tool that helps local governments consistently deliver the types of services that citizens want at the levels they are willing to pay.
* The role of the finance director is transformed from a monitor of transactions and fiduciary compliance to a vital member of the executive management team.
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