Accompanying this text, on its website, is a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) of the city of Austin, Texas. A CAFR includes an entity’s year-end financial statements; it is not the same as its budget. Austin’s CAFR forms the basis of the “continuing problems” of these chapters. Download the CAFR, either from the website of the text or directly from that of the City of Austin (https://assets.austintexas.gov/ financeonline/downloads/cafr/cafr2017.pdf) to your computer and practice navigating through it. Alternatively, with the consent of your instructor, you may obtain the CAFR of a different city, town, or county with a population of 100,000 or more.

A CAFR can generally be accessed from the city’s website or by writing to the governmental entity’s controller or finance director. Most institutions will provide the reports at no charge. This continuing problem, unlike those in other chapters of the text, requires no written responses.