Finance

The Rising Cost of Ignorance in Local Government Finance

February 5, 2014 Bond Rating

And here’s a really nice summary by Liz Farmer of why the cost of ignorance is rising in local government finance: Financial Illiteracy: One of Government’s Biggest and Least Discussed Problems. Yes, it’s more eat your fruits and vegetables stuff but … Don’t be surprised, as some have been even when their actions are legal, […]

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Reducing Ignorance in Local Government Finance

February 5, 2014 Bond Rating

From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Budgeting for the Future: Fiscal Planning Tools Can Show the Way (PDF), by Elizabeth C McNichol, Vincent Palacios, and Nicholas Johnson. Ten tools: Multi-Year Forecasts of Revenues and Spending Fiscal Notes with Multi-Year Projections Current Services Baselines Independent Consensus Revenue Forecasts Independent Legislative Fiscal Agencies Independent Review […]

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County on Crack? (Nassau County Debt Variety)

September 7, 2012 County Government

Nassau County, NY is not in financial trouble because of economic decline. It’s among the wealthiest counties in New York. It is in financial trouble because of an lengthy history of bad decision-making and evidently an inability to break its debt habit. Nassau County has a history of borrowing to pay tax refunds. Having been […]

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Part of the Cost of Government is Wall Street Scam

June 23, 2012 Bonds

Buried deep within the structures of public finance is the cash for capital projects that has not yet been spent because projects take time. This cash sits in accounts that earn interest. And the interest paid is determined by auctions. But many of these auctions are rigged. Matt Taibbi, of Rolling Stone, covers a trial […]

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The Shin Bone’s Connected to the Thigh Bone

December 7, 2011 Business

My friend and colleague, Tim Maniccia, who runs Policy Innovation, noted some interesting connections yesterday. What triggered Tim’s observations was the bankruptcy of American Airlines. The first thing he noted was that American’s four pension plans cover almost 130,000 participants, but they have only $8.3 billion in assets to cover $18.5 billion in benefits. Were […]

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Mitt Romney is a Cluster Bomb

November 28, 2011 Finance

Like cluster bombs, Mitt Romney is indifferent to indiscriminate “collateral damage.” I’ve been doing some research on private equity firms and the more I see, the more I suspect that they’re just another version of the rapacious financial practices of the last couple decades. They may be better disguised than “collateralized debt obligations” and other […]

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For openers … the case of Nassau County, New York

March 17, 2011 Local Government

It’s bad enough when we don’t bother gathering data to assess where we are, how we’re doing, and where we going. But to gather data and not use it is both foolish and wasteful. Not making governmental data – the public’s data – available to the public in a usable form undermines our ability to […]

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