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January 31, 2020

City hires NY research group to perform financial analysis

PHOTO | New Haven BIZ New Haven City Hall.
By Michael C. Bingham

The City of New Haven has engaged a financial analysis and advisory firm to conduct a comprehensive review of the city’s financial position.

The city announced Thursday that it had retained PFM Financial Advisors LLC to perform the analysis. The New York-based research group has performed comparable reviews for other cities in the Northeast.

The city created a five-year plan in 2019 that included a high-level analysis of financial trends. While the plan included recommendations of how the city could address its most pressing budget challenges, the additional work announced Thursday is intended to yield a more in-depth study of the city’s financials and provide additional recommendations.

The initiation of this financial review is based upon recommendations by the city’s Financial Review and Audit Commission (FRAC) in November 2019 and recommendations from the report drafted by the transition team of Mayor Justin Elicker.

The objectives of the review, according to city officials:

  • To gain an accurate and comprehensive assessment of the city’s financial situation by a neutral third party;
  • To valuate the city’s short-term budgetary position and identify potential course corrections for the current (2020) fiscal year and beyond;
  • Construct a five-year projection of the city’s baseline budget position with an analysis of key budget drivers;
  • Identify potential actions that the city may take to affect major budget drivers over the five-year period.

“It is imperative that we have a deep and honest assessment of our fiscal situation,” said Elicker. “Our goal is to understand with a high level of accuracy what the city of New Haven’s current and future financial state is, share this information with our partners, jointly evaluate our options and work together to solve the problem. My administration has been clear with PFM: tell us where we stand, not what we want to hear.”

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