These problems come from the realities public finance professionals are facing, informed by practitioner input, GFOA research, and other public finance signals. Read together, they point to less fiscal room, fewer people, and greater technological complexity. GovFi looks for practical solutions to these problems, whether we build them, partner with others, or invest behind them.
GFOA Fall 2025 member survey, 1,070 respondents.
Financial SustainabilityOpen
Revenue portfolios out of alignment
Revenue growth is lagging expenditure growth, and traditional revenue portfolios were built for an economy that no longer exists. Finance officers can see the gap widening without a clear path to restructuring.
Signal: GFOA describes government revenue portfolios as in flux, and names affordability, capital needs, inflation, and revenue uncertainty as active pressures.
What a solution needs to do
- Model revenue structure against the actual local economic base
- Make trade-offs legible to elected officials
- Account for affordability and equity, not just yield
Financial SustainabilityOpen
Multi-year planning under real uncertainty
Multi-year financial plans are widely recognized as good practice but often skipped because maintaining one under volatile conditions exceeds available capacity. Capital commitments, future operating costs, and strategic priorities can remain disconnected from the financial outlook.
Signal: GFOA addresses multi-year planning under sustained budgetary headwinds. Practitioner interviews identified forecasting uncertainty and the need to link multi-year and capital plans with strategy and performance.
What a solution needs to do
- Cut the effort of building and maintaining a plan
- Handle scenarios rather than single-point forecasts, with inspectable assumptions
- Connect capital commitments to future operating and maintenance costs
- Make implications for strategic priorities and service levels visible in output a council can act on
Financial SustainabilityOpen
Money available to redeploy is hard to see
Vacancy and turnover savings, idle balances, and unspent appropriations can leave money available for other priorities. Finance staff struggle to connect budget, staffing, payroll, ledger, and cash information to see what is available, when it can be used, and which restrictions apply.
Signal: Practitioner interviews identified vacancy savings, idle fund balances, and near-term cash visibility as opportunities to improve resource decisions.
What a solution needs to do
- Identify potentially available resources across budget, staffing, payroll, and ledger data
- Distinguish temporary savings from recurring capacity, and unrestricted resources from restricted or committed amounts
- Show timing and cash implications, with assumptions finance staff can inspect
- Support deliberate redeployment without treating every unspent dollar as available
Financial SustainabilityOpen
Near-term cash needs are hard to see
A government can have an adopted budget and still lack the cash to meet obligations when they come due. Smaller governments and single-purpose districts may struggle to anticipate cash shortfalls, especially when major projects require spending before grant reimbursements arrive. The problem can become visible only when payments are imminent.
Signal: Practitioner interviews identified limited near-term cash visibility, delayed grant reimbursements, and reliance on borrowing between funds to meet obligations.
What a solution needs to do
- Forecast cash receipts and payments over the coming weeks and months, with assumptions staff can inspect and update
- Distinguish cash available for an obligation from balances restricted or committed to other purposes
- Show how reimbursement delays and other timing changes affect the ability to pay
- Flag potential shortfalls early enough to evaluate options and their constraints
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