Outgoing GFOA president reflects on eventful year

Lunda Asmani's term as president of the Government Finance Officers Association last year saw a pair of significant successes: a jump in membership and the preservation of the municipal bond tax exemption in Congress.

But Asmani, who will hand the baton to incoming president Grace Martinez this week, counts some quieter accomplishments as just as important, including bulking up the organization's professional development for young public finance officials and strengthening relationships with state-level GFOA groups.

Asmani also takes his leave shortly after the GFOA's board approved a new initiative that will be focused on developing technology and service tools, including artificial intelligence, "by and for" the public finance sector.

"Over the past year, as I traveled and met virtually and in person with our state leaders, I recognized that the mission and vision of GFOA is really being lived out in excellence of public finance," Asmani said. "These coming years are going to be game-changing for us, and it's really important that GFOA stays ahead of it, and I think we're on track to do that."

Asmani, the chief financial officer of Norwalk Public Schools in Connecticut, took the helm last year as the public finance industry and issuers faced the threat of Congress axing the municipal bond tax exemption, a move that would have driven up borrowing costs for cities and states across the country.

Asmani witnessed firsthand the "amazing" work of the group's federal liaison team to persuade lawmakers of the importance of the tax exemption, he said. The creation of the Built by Bonds map was key to its success, he said.

"Every year the tax exemption on municipal bonds is something that comes up for discussion and this year we were very, very effective for making the case," Asmani said. "This is the advocacy that needs to continue year after year, so it was exciting for me to see how effective that advocacy is."

The nation's largest local and state finance officers' association jumped in size last year under a revamped membership structure that drove enrollment to 35,000 from over 20,000.

"The membership growth happened during my term as leader but it was really a team effort, and the GFOA staff did the bulk of the work," he said.

The new model is based on organization rather than individual, allowing budget and finance employees across all offices of participating government to become members. The growth over the last year "really reflects the strength and relevance of the organization," Asmani said.

One of his goals heading into the organization was helping more entry-level employees benefit from the kind of public finance training and networking that shaped his career. Over the year, the group created deeper professional development "learning pathways," where members identify where they are now and where they would like to be in five years, and then are able to access an outline of the steps needed to achieve their goal.

Asmani said his term as president allowed him to reflect on how much the organization shaped his own career.

"It was a revelation to me, reflecting on how much GFOA has influenced my career and then understanding that if GFOA could do this for me, transforming me and allowing me to grow, it can do this for anybody else," he said.

Asmani first joined the group fresh from graduate school in his first position as a young budget analyst. "Now 25 years later, I'm president of GFOA," he said. "I realized just how critical all of the GFOA touchpoints were over my career."

The creation of GOVfi Solutions Inc., which the board recently approved, will be focused on creating technology solutions and services specifically for public finance officers, as opposed to trying to shape private sector solutions to public finance problems, he said.

"Over the next 12 to 24 months we will begin to see a lot more AI initiatives by GFOA," he said. "As local governments begin to understand AI and people in the communities begin to advocate for AI, they'll be looking to the GFOA for some guidance as how to manage AI in public finance," he said.

"We need to continue to put our members and our state associations first," he said. "That will keep us focused on our mission of making sure all our local governments are financially managed professionally."