Full Disclosure: Town is Tops in Financial Reporting

For the eleventh consecutive year, the Town of Huntington has received the highest recognition from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) for maintaining outstanding government accounting and financial reporting practices.

The GFOA recently awarded the Town its Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2008. The award was the result of a review by an impartial panel that determined the Town's comprehensive annual financial report met the Association's standards, including demonstrating a "constructive spirit of full disclosure" to clearly communicate the Town's financial story. The GFOA considers the award as representing a significant accomplishment by a government and its management.

"We are extremely proud of the continuing recognition of the way we manage the Town's finances," Supervisor Frank P. Petrone said. "But more important is the role these validations of the Town's fiscal practices play in producing the Town's consistently high bond ratings, translating into lower borrowing costs that save money for Town taxpayers."

      In December, two Wall Street investment firms, Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's, upheld Huntington's top bond rating, reaffirming their support of the Town's fiscal practices. The high ratings enabled the Town to sell $12.8 million in 2009 public improvement serial bonds at a very favorable interest rate of 2.96 percent.

The GFOA is a nonprofit professional association serving approximately 17, 500 government finance professionals. The GFOA established the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting Program in 1945 to encourage and assist state and local governments to go beyond the minimum requirements of generally accepted accounting principles to prepare comprehensive annual financial reports that evidence the spirit of transparency and full disclosure and then to recognize individual governments that succeed in achieving that goal.  Reports submitted to the CAFR program are reviewed by selected members of the GFOA professional staff and the GFOA Special Review Committee (SRC), which comprises individuals with expertise in public-sector financial reporting and includes financial statement preparers, independent auditors, academics and other finance-relates professionals. More than 3,500 governments participate in the program each year.  Participants include governments of all levels (state and local), types (general-purpose and special-purpose), and sizes.