Archive for the ‘Debt Obligations’ Category
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
Check out this article in CT News Junkie on Unfunded Pension Obligations
An important piece this article does not mention is the “discount rate” or “Return on Investment” assumptions. When you assume, as New Haven does, a high and unrealistic 8-9% return every year, year after year, you only need to put in a small amount of money AND you can claim that we are “funding the pensions at 100% actuarial required amount”. The problem, is that if you assume 5% then the amount we need to put away in our CERF and P&F funds would skyrocket each year. Our funded ratio is very low AND we assume a high rate of return. I would recommend you request from our actuaries SEVERAL scenarios with the rate of return, pessimistic/ best guess/ optimistic ROI. Our current ROI is hopelessly optimistic and concealing the true problem in our city’s pension funds.
Tags: Accountability, Budget, City Of New Haven, Financial Sustainability, Pensions
Posted in Debt Obligations, Financial Sustainability | Comments Off
Sunday, April 11th, 2010
Tags: Budget, City Of New Haven, Financial Sustainability, NHCAN, Pensions, presentation, Salaries, video
Posted in Budget, Debt Obligations, Financial Sustainability | Comments Off
Sunday, March 21st, 2010
Pension Woes May Deepen Financial Crisis For States
There’s a looming U.S. financial problem that’s big, is getting larger and could threaten the solvency of some states. From Connecticut to California, pension funds for teachers, firefighters and other public employees are severely underfunded. Read More Or Listen to Coverage
Tags: Financial Sustainability, Pensions
Posted in Debt Obligations | Comments Off
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
The final recommendations to the New Haven Board of Aldermen from the Blue Ribbon Citizen’s Panel on the Budget is ready. Its a worthwhile read. Thanks to all the panelists and city staff that contributed to its construction.
Tags: Budget, City Of New Haven, Financial Sustainability, Transparency
Posted in Accountability, BOA, Budget, Debt Obligations, Economic Development, Education, Inefficiencies, Transparency, White Papers | Comments Off
Friday, May 1st, 2009
There was a hearing at the State Freedom of Information Commission today. You can read the background in the New Haven Independent and The New Haven Advocate. Here is the sanitized version of the city’s projections. The attached version is different then the one Jeffrey saw in July 2008 and the one he requested under the FOIA. Notice that the City’s projections keeps taxes completely unchanged for five years. I don’t think anyone believes that taxes will remain completely flat for five years. Things inherently cost more each year. More updates forthcoming.
Tags: Accountability, Barriers to success, FOIA, Transparency
Posted in Accountability, Budget, Debt Obligations, Financial Sustainability, Transparency | Comments Off
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
Check out this Government Accountability Office (GAO) video summary of the economy. This is before the latest meltdown and bailouts. Did you know you owe the US Govt $350,000?
http://www.gao.gov/media/video/fiscal/windows/amfiscal.wmv
Tags: Accountability, Federal Debt
Posted in Accountability, Debt Obligations, Transparency | Comments Off
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
Although this letter from the Mayor focuses on the national financial mess, New Haven’s financial problems have been years in the making. This was coming to a head without the latest national pressures. What is happening, is now, these issues can no longer be managed with one time revenue infusions from selling City assets, or other financial engineering. We have written elsewhere, and provided testimony, that the budget is mostly personnel related. That is why the Mayor’s letter focuses on union renegotiations. Tweed, Shubert, the trolley to nowhere, and other major ticket items still pale in comparison to the major driver – personnel cost. This is simply a fact of the city budget. The fact that the city employees and the citizens still do not understand this is a failure of leadership on this issue. We need transparent government, multi-year financial projections to make sound decisions, and accountability at all levels of city government and city spending if we want to start digging our way slowly out of this hole. I am hopeful that the current administration will take the necessary steps to greater transparency, community involvement, and encourage honest and rigorous discourse on the financial state of this City so we can begin coming together to right this ship. Have some ideas? Send them our way.
Tags: Budget, Shubert Theater, Tweed Airport
Posted in Accountability, Budget, Debt Obligations, Financial Sustainability, Inefficiencies, Mayor, Transparency, Tweed Airport | Comments Off
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
According to Andy Ross, the City of New Haven is insolvent (unable to pay its debts). We have resorted to “financial engineering” to make our budget work (like borrowing from one credit card to pay another one’s monthly minimum payment). Read his informative article from the Grand News.
Contact your alderperson
to ask them about this article. We sent them all a copy of the article.
Posted in Budget, Debt Obligations | Comments Off
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
See below for a NYTimes article and Harry David’s contextualization.
Note the size of Vallejo — 115,000 compared to New Haven/s 120,000. Vallejo’s payroll costs were 80% of the General Fund compared to New Haven’s 65%. New Haven’s Mayor will be proposing some modest payroll trimming that may not be sufficient. We have the experience of Waterbury to look to and to try to avoid going down the path of profligate spending in a constrained tax climate. Harry
US | May 8, 2008
City Council in Bay Area Declares Bankruptcy
By JESSE McKINLEY
The unanimous vote was cast after efforts to squeeze concessions out of Vallejo City employees failed and with the city facing a $16 million shortfall for the fiscal year.
Posted in Budget, Debt Obligations, Inefficiencies | Comments Off
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
(NHCAN) is pleased to announce the budget recommendations for the 2008-2009 Fiscal Year. We have prepared a list of recommendations including the ending of unsustainable subsidies, to the reorganization of departments, to the transformation of the budget document itself. Below you will find the link to the full document (2.3 MB), as well as, shorter versions of the document. We recognize that some of these recommendations may be impractical or even naïve. We invite you to consider these in the spirit in which it is offered and to offer superior alternatives for the general good. We look forward to continuing this discussion.
2008-2009 Budget Public Comments(2.3 MB)
Executive Summary Only (414 KB)
Full Document Without the Appendices (1.4 MB)
Appendices Only (2.0 MB)
Posted in BOA, Budget, Debt Obligations, Economic Development, Education, Fire Dept, Inefficiencies, Mayor, NHPD, Tweed Airport, White Papers | Comments Off
