ABFM is pleased to announce the recipients of our 2024 Annual Awards. These individuals represent and epitomize excellence within the disciplines of teaching, research, writing, and professional practice throughout the field of public finance. Recipients will be honored for their awards and accomplishments during the Awards Luncheon at ABFM’s 2024 Annual Conference in Cleveland, OH, on September 26th-28th.
Special thanks are extended to the Chairs and Members of each Awards Committee for their work in reviewing nominations and selecting this year’s recipients.
AARON WILDAVSKY AWARD
For lifetime achievement for work in budgeting and financial management
Bob Bland, Endowed Professor of Local Government & MPA Program Coordinator, University of North Texas
ABFM recognizes Dr. Bland for his contributions to municipal securities, capital spending, and local cash management. Not only is his scholarship strong in these areas, Dr. Bland has made an indelible mark through his impacts to training public finance professionals.
PAUL POSNER PRACADEMIC AWARD
For lifetime achievement for significant contributions made to the field of budgeting and financial management
as both a practitioner and an academic
Marilyn Rubin, Distinguished Research Fellow, Rutgers University School of Public Affairs & Administration
Dr. Rubin is recognized for her interests in government finance and tax policy, public budgeting, crime statistics, social justice, and gender and racial equity seamlessly integrate with practitioner activities throughout a decades-long career, where her experience in practice informed her scholarship and her scholarship contributed to effect policy change in practice. She has embodied the synergy of doing academics and practice concurrently.
S. KENNETH HOWARD AWARD
To honor lifetime achievement by a practitioner in the field of budgeting and financial management
Shayne Kavanagh, Senior Manager of Research, GFOA
Mr. Kavanagh has made significant contributions to the field on a broad scale. He has led some very important initiatives for GFOA that are changing the practice of public budgeting and finance. Most recently, he managed three related initiatives where GFOA cooperated with several other associations: “Rethinking Budgeting,” “Rethinking Revenue,” and “Rethinking Financial Reporting.”
SCHOLARLY ENGAGEMENT AWARD
For outstanding public budgeting or finance scholarly engagement in the previous calendar year
Peter Jones, Associate Professor, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Dr. Jones is recognized as this year’s recipient for his work on legal financial obligations (LFOs, or fines and fees). In collaboration with Alabama Appleseed, this work produced an influential report detailing the fiscal impacts of LFOs in Jefferson County, Alabama.
MICHAEL CURRO AWARD
For best graduate student paper in public budgeting or finance
Luis Navarro, “Federal Assistance and Municipal Borrowing: Unpacking the Effects of the CARES Act on Government Liquidity Management”
Mr. Navarro’s work addresses the classic public finance concern of federal aid’s crowd-out or crowd-in effect on local government spending. Using variation in the eligibility for the CARES Act’s Coronavirus Relief Fund, he finds that governments with eligibility experience a 6 to 9 basis point reduction in their primary market bond spreads, leading to a desired crowd-in effect.
BEST BOOK AWARD
For the outstanding public budgeting or finance book or edited volume
with a copyright date within the past three years
George M. Guess & James D. Savage, “Comparative Public Budgeting: Global Perspectives on Taxing and Spending”
The authors are commended for the wide scope and ambitious goal of the book, describing approaches to public sector budgeting across different regions with intellectual consistency. It expands the field to non-western regions with sufficient details and facts, then proceeds with the challenging goal of deriving generalized conclusions that can hold across different contexts.