Finance Committee - 4/17/2019 Page 4
That is a very, very quick walk-through of the Governance Letter, our audit process, some of the things that
audit standards require us to communicate to you. Again | wanted to touch base very quickly on the long-term
liabilities, the net pension liability and the OPEB liability than really focus on the General Fund because most
readers still do focus there. There’s a wealth of other information in this document on some of the other funds.
Note disclosures, there’s a wealth of note disclosures on the aforementioned pension and OPEB liabilities, on
your long-term debt there’s some amortization schedules in there that show how rapidly you pay out those
long-term liabilities; which you do pay them out fairly rapidly. Your governmental debt is a lot of times financial
institutions and rating agencies will look at how much of your overall debt load, the outstanding bonds
payables, what percentage of that gets paid off within the next 10 years. Nashua has what is considered for
your governmental debt, a very rapid payout of that debt. So again, note disclosures on all of those key
accounts, as well as some trend information in the back of the report and combining schedules.
With that, | will open it up to see if there are questions on the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report or on
the procedures we performed.
Mayor Donchess
Does Mr. Griffin have anything to add?
John Griffin, CFO
Thank you Mayor. | would just like to thank the members of the financial staff that prepare this document. |
think it is our 13" year that we have won the GFOA Award for Reporting Excellence; in large measure due to
the financial staff but also our colleagues in all the Divisions, the Division Directors and the Financial Managers
in those areas. So it is a real comprehensive financial report that is done, that is really a testament to the
City’s financial position. As you have seen over the years, we talked a little bit about the budget, the financial
services budget. Alderman Clemons was discussing the debt service, the payouts that Mr. McIntire said we do
pay off debt rapidly which is a sign of strength. We have two Triple A ratings because of the efforts of both the
presentations but also the communications that we have on ratings calls with Standard & Poors and Fitch.
So definitely a comprehensive effort; we are in good in position here and Mr. Mcintire did focus on the OPEB,
which is basically benefits as well as the pension liability. It is a very daunting number, but on the operating
side we were glad to see for the Fiscal 20 budget that the pension amount, the rates that we are charged didn’t
go up as dramatically as they did in the most recent past. So thank you for allowing me to make comments Mr.
Mayor and members of the Committee. Thank you.
Mayor Donchess
So questions or comments from Mr. McIntire or Mr. Griffin?
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you Mr. Mayor. In looking down legislative row here with some of my colleagues who serve up at the
House; some good things are coming up from the State. | guess we were fast-tracked on that State Pension
Plan and had to pay the $2 million dollars annually. But now | understand there is a Bill and if it gets through,
well let me just say with that increase of the $2 million dollars, you can call it what you want, but the State used
to pay 35% and they cut it down to basically nothing. You could call it a State Cutback, | like to call it a Tax
and Inadvertent Tax but it was that.
If the Governor leaves his fingers off of it, there is a Bill pending that is going to contribute at least 15% to get
the State, now that could even boast us even better. The second thing is, the fast-tracking | think Mr. Griffin,
aren’t we are at the zenith of that? Now itis going to start rolling back a little less if that Bill didn’t come with
the 15%, it is going to start dropping now, the implementation will start dropping a little bit from the $2 million.
