MTA Audited Financials for 2010 and 2Q11 Financial Review

During a Round of Public Hearings (earlier this year) for the MTA considering fair hikes we wanted to consider with you MTA Financials and planned for a later time to return and do so, this seemed like a good time to check back in on this.

Most of us have an up and down relationship with Public Transportation which at it's optimal performance can help us efficiently move, save resources, and better connect in the Urban Environment. Like any large organization there is always room for continued improvement and the interaction of an interested audience can go a long way in helping the MTA more efficiently reach its service goal to better transport us all with efficiency.

A solid starting point for considering MTA Finances is realizing the Federal, State and Local Funding are components of supporting the MTA in addition to the Fares we pay - it is a subsidized service, but like any Organization the process is likely to work with more efficiency in meeting it's goal when we pay attention to Financials, Budgets and Plans and consider ways we can help to be more interactively involved. The questions you've had, the solutions you've considered can all help to bring more efficiency to MTA operations and it's in your hands to better connect with the Government and MTA leadership to communicate the ways we can all assist in improving MTA and supporting Fiscally Responsible Financial Management and Operational Efficiency in Public Transit.

To this end in learning more about MTA Operations it's a great start to read Financials to see where Operations and Efficiency Meet or may need additional assistance.

We share with you Audited 2010 MTA Financials and 2Q11 Reviewed MTA Financials, as you review them it is helpful to understand that Audited Financials delivered by CPAs provide a higher degree of reliability than Review. Audited Financials have met the higher benchmark of Reasonable Assurance from a CPA, that those Audited Financials are Free from Material Misstatements, Errors, Omissions or other defects (it is not a Guarantee). Reviewed Financials are subject to a substantially lesser CPA review process based on observational and analytical analysis. Given the choice you should always focus more on the Audited Financials that meet the greater standard.  You can better follow the difference between an Audit and Review by reading and contrasting the wordings in Each CPA Report below to better follow what an Audit or a Review is or is not. To help you find them below they are called the Independent Auditors Report and the Independent Accountants Review Report  respectively and are signed by the CPA Firm in the Documents below.


See also DCarsonCPA The Empire Line for info on MTA Budgets 2012 - 2015: http://dcarsoncpa-theempireline.blogspot.com/2011/11/nys-ct-mta-financial-plan-2012-2015.html


MTA_Q2_ReviewReport






NYS MTA Audited Consolidated 2010 Financials

Checking in with NYC Government at 11/7/11

At the Mayors Office:

Mayor Bloomberg, Speaker Quinn, Housing Commissioner Wambua and Gotham Organization Break Ground On Largest New Construction Project in Manhattan Under City's Housing http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2011b%2Fpr397-11.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1

Mayor Bloomberg Convenes International Summit On Business Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Job Creation Sponsored by New York City Global Partners at Columbia University http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2011b%2Fpr392-11.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1

Mayors Office: http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.beb0d8fdaa9e1607a62fa24601c789a0/


Mayoral & City Agencies  http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.db6d44f040275edd6bce0ed101c789a0


NYC Comptrollers Office:

COMPTROLLER LIU ISSUES NEW YORK CITY’S COMPREHENSIVE
ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2011 http://comptroller.nyc.gov/press/2011_releases/pr11-11-084.shtm


The CAFR of NYC for 2011 has not been posted online yet since it is still in Draft Version and it will be several more months for the Final CAFR for 2011 report to be available in Final Version as per Comptrollers Office. The CAFR is the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report of NYC - the Financials of Our City.

New York State published it's 3/31/11 CAFR  in support of Transparency and you can find it here:

http://www.osc.state.ny.us/finance/finreports/cafr11.pdf


As we understand it currently these are the June 30, 2010 NYC Financials :

http://www.comptroller.nyc.gov/bureaus/acc/cafr-pdf/cafr2010.pdf

The 2011 NYC CAFR will be made available when it reaches it's final version in a few months per NYC Comptrollers. In a point of observation since Annual Financials are historical documents timelines are important for consituents knowledge of NYC Government. At present the Financials which are dated 6/30/11 appear to be on a 6 Month turnaround timeline for Annual Financials resulting in what would be from a Corporate view point stale data for analysis purposes.

If you have been following with us, you know that we care about Federal, State and Local Financials and value timely data for Decision Makers.

A Goal for a Improvements:
From the outside looking in, there appears to be a good opportunity for reengineering timelines on NYC Financials. If there is a background process that is holding up NYC Financials, that process should be rengineered. Timely Financials for NYC help NYC voters, the constituents of NYC to be better connected to and aware of City Financials complete with Challenges and Opportunitities for improvement.

As a point of Comparison Our Federal Government issues Federal Financials on 9/30/11 and GAO has 45 days to issue a report thereafter. While the Federal Government has greater resources, NYC Financials are also very important and warrant a tight timeline to issuance.

We care about NYC and part of being better connected to government is being able to connect with the financials on a timely basis to consider decisions in Public Finance, this is important for ALL NYC Residents.


At City Council (the NYC Legislative Branch):

COUNCIL VOTES TO INCREASE COMMUNITY BOARD INPUT ON BICYCLE LANES INSTALLATION http://council.nyc.gov/html/releases/110311stated.shtml

Speaker Quinn Outlines Nine Point Job Creation Strategy http://council.nyc.gov/html/releases/101811abny.shtml


About City Council http://council.nyc.gov/html/about/about.shtml


NYC Judicial Branch:

New York State Unified Courts

Still reviewing - will update in the near term....

NYC Elections Board - Becoming A Candidate

Most of us have some insights to things we'd like to fix in areas of City Government, few will ultimately take that step to enter the arena to make a difference by actually making a run for a political office in New York City. If you are inclined to run for office, the NYC Board of Elections has provided this how to guide on how to get there from NYS:

http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/candidates.html (NYS Board of Elections)

In the interest of sharing information that you may find important we are sharing it for you here.

The Next Link is to the NYC Board of Elections for more General information http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/.