Due to its lack of accounting for infrastructure assets and all long-term debt and liabilities, including pensions, general fund analysis has limited utility when analyzing municipal financial health. By Richard A. Ciccarone By incorporating the...
Richard Ciccarone
Assessing the Credit Quality of America’s Cities – Part Four: FY 2014 Financial Condition
The most basic sign that a government is living within its means is that it balances its books at the end of the year. Traditionally, most city officials, experts, and observers of state and local government focus primarily on the general fund, usually a government's...
Assessing the Credit Quality of America’s Cities – Part Three: Long-Term Liabilities beyond Pensions
By Richard A. Ciccarone City Financial Challenges Beyond Pensions When Assessing the Credit Quality of America's Cities, pensions aren't the only big long term liability facing America's cities. Add to the list bonded indebtedness, other post-employment benefits...
Assessing the Credit Quality of America’s Cities – Part Two: The Achilles Heel to the Fiscal Condition of Cities – Public Pensions
In the second part of our series on city credit quality, the spotlight shifts to the Achilles heel for many cities: public pensions. by Richard A. Ciccarone Governmental credit quality is a byproduct of both the underlying economy and the cumulative...
Assessing the Credit Quality of America’s Cities – Part One: Focus on Bond Ratings
How close to the fiscal distress edge are America's cities? This article, the first in a series, Assessing the Credit Quality of America's Cities, examines the financial health of cities against a backdrop of high ratings issued by the three major credit rating...
Illinois Pension Reform Legislation Is Legally Justifiable and in the Best Interest of All
by James Spiotto On November 21, 2014, the Circuit Court for the Seventh Judicial Circuit in Sangamon County, Illinois presiding over the consolidated Illinois State Pension Reform Litigation ruled that the pension reform legislation passed by the State Legislature...
Does Municipal Bond Credit Quality Impact Annual Audit Times?
Increased attention on local government fiscal stress and Chapter 9 bankruptcy filings has heightened concerns over municipal bond credit quality in wider circles than ever before. But while the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires certain issuers of...
Leading by Example: Syracuse University Is Fastest Municipal Borrower to Complete Financial Audits
Syracuse University is known for many things: its Orangemen, its hilly campus, and its famous alumni, including Joe Biden, Dick Clark, and William Safire. But perhaps one of its lesser known accolades is that it is a leader in timely financial reporting among...
Most Municipal Audits Still Slow, Despite Push for Timely Transparency
In the corporate bond market, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires that annual audit reports be submitted within 60 to 90 days of the close of the fiscal year. While the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) has said that it would like to have...
Study Examines Municipal Audit Turnaround Time
How long does it take for municipal entities to produce annual audit reports?