City Receives National Recognition for Financial Reporting Excellence

The City of New Albany recently received the Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting, the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). The city’s comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR) was judged to demonstrate a spirit of full disclosure and clearly communicate the city’s financial story for the eighth year in a row.

CAFRs are an important component in establishing bond ratings, which are used to establish interest rates when debt is issued for capital projects. New Albany’s current bond ratings (Standard & Poor’s: AAA; Moody’s: Aa1), combined with interest rates at near historic lows, allowed the city to recently refinance $12.05 million in debt originally issued in 2003 to construct the city police station, public service facility and a portion of the sanitary sewer system in the business park. Refinancing this debt produced a net present value savings of $2.13 million and an estimated aggregate cash savings of $3.27 million over the life of the issue.

The award was presented to acting finance director Vicki McKinney. The award itself “illustrates that our City Council members and staff take financial reporting and financial responsibility very seriously,” said city manager Joseph Stefanov.  “We will always have the potential for swings in revenue from year to year because income tax revenues constitute 75% of our general fund budget to provide city services.  This is why creating jobs inside New Albany borders is so important to our financial future as a community. Those who work in New Albany pay local income taxes to our city no matter where they live.  This is especially important because most who live in New Albany but work outside city boundaries do not pay income taxes to New Albany.”