In June 1999 the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) approved one of the most significant financial reporting requirements in its history. For the first time, governments will show all available resources and costs associated with those resources to provide for public services. More than 84,000 local jurisdictions, including state and local governments, will be affected. Statement Number 34 requires that state and local governments begin reporting on the value of their infrastructure assets and depreciate them over their useful life.

Infrastructure assets are defined as long-lived capital assets that normally are stationary in nature and normally can be preserved for a significantly greater number of years than most capital assets. (i.e. roads, bridges, tunnels, dams, lighting systems, and water and sewer facilities.) Buildings, except those that are an ancillary part of a network of infrastructure assets, should not be considered.

Statistics concerning local resouces:

 •Local roads represent 75% of the four million miles of U. S. roadways
 •27% of the 159,000 bridges in the U.S. are on local collector roads
 •26% of the $ 100 billion spent on U. S. roads and bridges annually comes from local governments
 •Local governments spend 34% of the annual budget for U.S. roads and bridges

Implementation for (valuing and) reporting infrastructure assets is based on annual revenues of the first fiscal year after June 15, 1999:

 •Phase I governments (total annual revenues of $100 million or more) will begin after June 15, 2001
 •Phase II governments (total annual revenues of $10 million or more) will begin after June 15, 2002
 •Phase III governments (total annual revenues under $10 million) will begin after June 15, 2003

These dates apply to newly acquired or built infrastructure. Governments have four additional years to report all pre-existing assets. Annual revenues are primary government's primary governmental and enterprise funds, except for extraordinary items.