New Haven Citizens Action Network » Financial Sustainability

Some Documents

jeffrey.kerekes — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 19:39:24 +0000

City of New Haven Proposed 2011-12 Budget

Management Partners Gap Analysis for the Financial Review And Audit Commission

McGladrey Gap Analysis for the Mayor’s Ability to Pay Presentation

Cash Strapped Cities

jeffrey.kerekes — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 18:08:11 +0000

Check this out: CNN Report on Cash Strapped Cities. Pay attention to Corey Booker’s thoughts on not only budget shortfalls but the unfunded pension and healthcare liabilities. This is HIGHLY relevant to New Haven.

Some Background Documents on the Budget

jeffrey.kerekes — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:06:54 +0000

The biggest question about the Mayor’s new found position, is whether he will listen to the people? Here are some citizen driven reports and suggestion on the budget. Will he listen?

FRAC Report on the State of New Haven’s Financial Picture

jeffrey.kerekes — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:33:28 +0000

Read the article here in the New Haven Independent.

Can we decrease spending and increase revenue to cover $100 Million? This is what we need to do in five years to cover a $82 Million shortfall and raise the emergency fund to 5% of our budget (another $22 million). This is not counting any drastic measures by the State to cut our PILOT or ECS (Education) funding.

Other interesting findings such as spending $1.5 Billion Dollars on Schools without checking to see if we need to build so many schools — is this why the census is so low at schools? If our census at schools do not match what we told the state, the State is going to send us a bill for the difference. I believe we have already had to pay back about $65 million in money for things which the State never approved. Where does it end???

Latest News Round-up

jeffrey.kerekes — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:15:24 +0000

New Haven Small Businesses Are Upset With The City’s Assessments

Tax Office Glitch Startles Seniors

City Wants More For Vanessa’s Chevy

And, did you see this?

www.johndestefanojr.com

Unfunded Pension Obligations

jeffrey.kerekes — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:13:56 +0000

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.

Can States Fix Their Pension Problems?

jeffrey.kerekes — Wed, 26 May 2010 01:42:44 +0000

See the New York Times Discussion.

Can New Haven fix its pension problem?

Thank You

jeffrey.kerekes — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:25:50 +0000

Thank You

We had a very successful turn out last evening and even won over the people turned out by the Mayor. Lets keep up the pressure to have the Board of Aldermen send the budget back to the Mayor.

An Inconvenient Budget

jeffrey.kerekes — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 01:44:10 +0000

Great Summary of the Budget Drivers & Forces

jeffrey.kerekes — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:16:14 +0000

Read this letter from Professor David Cameron about the budget drivers and forces effecting our 2010-2011 Budget in New Haven. It is a great summary of where we are and what we need to be concerned about.