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Joseph Stefko, Ph.D.
Director of Public Finance |
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Expertise
Public finance, municipal fiscal distress, budgeting, government management and shared services/consolidation
Dr. Stefko directs CGR’s public finance practice, working with clients on issues related to budgeting, fiscal impact and government management. He has extensive experience addressing municipal fiscal distress; analyzing local government finances and services; and assessing the impact of state policies on municipalities. His work focuses on projecting budgetary needs and quantifying the cost of government, as well as on working with municipalities to identify opportunities for efficiencies and determining their financial capacity for absorbing current and future cost obligations. In addition, Dr. Stefko oversees CGR’s cutting-edge web-based Govistics™ tool, which allows rapid access to information on government spending by individual state and local governments across the U.S.
Current Projects
- Directing enhancements to the CGR Govistics™ tool (www.govistics.com)
- Directing a consolidation study and implementation plan for the Township and Borough of Chester NJ., including advising a joint commission on potential benefits and liabilities of consolidating into a single municipality
- Providing analytical guidance to the Chemung County (NY) Financial Review Committee, quantifying the full cost of local government services as a basis for identifying efficiency enhancement opportunities
- Directing an ambulance service feasibility study, with comprehensive assessment of the current structure, organization and service delivery framework in North Hempstead NY, along with options for enhancing service quality and capitalizing on cost saving opportunities
Completed Projects
- Directed centralized property tax administration program studies for 4 NYS counties—reviewing current assessment systems and analyzing options for enhancing transparency, equity and efficiency
- Directed a project in partnership with Hofstra University for the NY Workforce Investment Board designed to build the board’s capacity to provide additional resources and capital to entrepreneurial ventures in the region
- Led an engagement with the Rochester (NY) Business Alliance analyzing the region’s public sector collective bargaining agreements for comparability to regional and national compensation/benefit standards
- Other projects addressed issues involving government management, fiscal and economic impact, budget review and analysis, intergovernmental collaboration and shared services, and / or strategic planning
Education
B.A. (Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude) in Political Science, M.A. in Political Science and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University at Buffalo (SUNY), with concentrations in public policy and subnational / urban government. In fall 2010, Dr. Stefko will join the Department of Public Administration at SUNY Brockport as an adjunct faculty member. Previously he served as an adjunct faculty member in the University of Buffalo’s Departments of Political Science and Urban / Regional Planning.
Background
Dr. Stefko rejoined CGR in 2008 after spending nearly 5 years with the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority (BFSA), the NYS agency tasked with monitoring the financial condition of the City of Buffalo, its dependent school district and other critical city agencies. He served as Principal Analyst and Deputy Director of BFSA before being named Acting Executive Director in 2007. Under BFSA, the city generated more than $230 million in budgetary savings, experienced a 4-fold increase in fund balance, and earned multiple credit rating upgrades from Wall Street. While at BFSA, Dr. Stefko helped direct all policy analysis, research and budget review of the city and school district and developed recommendations for board action on major fiscal items, including the annual budget / financial plan and collective bargaining agreements. He played a primary role in briefing the BFSA board on issues related to the financial status of the city, and policy items with real or potential fiscal impacts.
Dr. Stefko was previously on CGR’s staff from 1998 to 2000 as Research Associate, and from 2002 to 2003 as Senior Research Associate. |
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