The effect of implementing government accounting standards varies with the quality of local government. Based on the data of 31 provinces and regions in China from 2009 to 2017, the empirical analysis shows that local government quality has a significant positive impact on the implementation effect of government accounting standards. However, under the effect of soft budget constraints, this positive impact changes in reverse, that is, the soft budget constraint plays a reverse regulating role in the relationship between local government quality and the implementation effect of government accounting standards. Further research found that the government quality of the eastern and western regions has a greater influence on the implementation effect of the government accounting standards than that of the middle region due to the differences in the development and the central policies of eastern, middle and western regions. With the development level of eastern, middle and western provinces becomes lower, the negative moderating effect of soft budget constraint on the relationship between government quality and the implementation effect of government accounting standards will weaken.