
While I understand it is that time of the year, I’m writing to address the inaccuracies, distortions and political talking points spun by Mr. Tylinski in his Letter to the Editor regarding Ansonia’s Finances.
As Chief Fiscal Officer of the City of Ansonia, let me first clarify: Ansonia’s finances are very strong, particularly considering the challenging economic conditions faced by all Connecticut municipalities.
As someone with a background in finance and accounting, Mr. Tylinski should be aware that he has presented his facts out of context, and in a way designed to unfairly smear his own City.
When viewed in context, the facts tell a completely different story.
- Timeliness of Audit. It is true that Ansonia requested an extension in fiscal years 2020/2021 in preparing the audit. However, many Connecticut municipalities requested an extension of their audits during 2020/2021 due to COVID related staffing shortages and the implementation of new accounting standards for pensions and OPEB. This was the case for Ansonia (along with a massive conversion of financial software for the Board of Education and City finance systems). Audits from fiscal years 2015 through 2018 were delivered on time. Fiscal year 2019 required a one-month extension due to difficulties reconciling with the Board of Education.
- City Debt. While outstanding debt has increased, the City’s debt ratio remains remarkably healthy and positive. Standard and Poor’s believes that a healthy community should have a debt ratio somewhere between 6 and 8 percent. Ansonia’s debt ratio currently stands at just over 3.5%. Far from being overburdened by debt, the city is actually in an excellent position to continue reinvesting in its infrastructure in a financially responsible manner.
- Rainy Day Fund. Ansonia’s leverage of its ​“rainy day fund,” or fund balance, was for the purpose of stabilizing taxes and making reinvestments in the City. This strategy resulted in 11.6% growth in the Grand List, or an average of 1.65% per year. This is exceptional when one considers that property values plummeted during the most recent revaluation year in 2018.
But readers shouldn’t just take my word for it. Outside financial professionals deem the City to be on very strong financial footing. During the most recent audit, our auditors did not identify any deficiencies in internal control that they would consider to be a material weakness.
Additionally, S & P Global Ratings affirmed the City’s long-term rating just last year, specifically mentioning our strong budgetary flexibility, very strong liquidity, strong debt and contingent liability position and strong institutional framework.
Finally, our most recent offering of $11,100,000 of General Obligation bonds for the police station had a true interest cost that was only 2.04% which was a historically low rate for a 30-year bond issue for the city. 52 different investment firms put in orders to purchase the City’s debt making our issue 4.8 times oversubscribed. That is fantastic news for taxpayers.
So, as you can see, financial professionals have a very different opinion of the City than Mr. Tylinski.
Regardless of his intentions, the letter writer should know better. Financial professionals should use their knowledge to educate, not opportunistically cherry pick facts to build political arguments.
Kurt Miller
City of Ansonia CFO
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