Joseph Stefko, Ph.D., CGR’s Director of Public Finance, has been named a member of the national council that advises the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. GASB is the independent organization that establishes and improves standards of accounting and financial reporting for U.S. state and local governments. It is widely recognized as the official source of generally accepted accounting principles for state and local governments.

To mark 95 years of serving the public interest, CGR holds 3 events on a single day focused on education reform, an issue of critical importance to the public. The theme of the day is “Ensuring Effective Educators is Revolutionary Work.” Participants include the NYS Education Commissioner, a noted author, the VP of regional operations for Teach for America, the Rochester NY Schools Superintendent, an Education School Dean and many others.

CGR launches Govistics™, a cutting-edge web tool that can be used to access information on government spending for individual state and local governments across the U.S. The Govistics™ tool can be found at www.govistics.com, and includes information on more than 38,800 state, county, city, town and village governments in the U.S. The tool is user friendly with a highly graphic interface, so that anyone, anywhere, at any time can quickly find out just how much their state or local government spends, what they spent it on, and how that spending stacks up against peer governments.

Health care and higher education is the largest sector represented with nearly twice the employment as retail, which came in #2. The top 6 employers are NY Presbyterian Healthcare System, Walmart, Citigroup, IBM Corp., JP Morgan Chase, and the University of Rochester/Strong Health and affiliates. The largest manufacturer on the list – Eastman Kodak Co. – is #17.

A March 2010 survey conducted by CGR and Metrix Matrix, an opinion research firm, finds broad support for mayoral control of the Rochester NY School District. Overall, 62% strongly or somewhat support the approach while 23% somewhat or strongly oppose it. Click here for the Press Release. Click here for Survey Data. Click here for Survey Form.

CGR and a local opinion research firm are assessing Rochester NY residents’ opinions of Mayor Robert Duffy’s proposal to shift oversight of the City School District from the Board of Education to the City Administration. More than 2,000 surveys were mailed to City homes on March 8, 2010. Responses are due back by March 17.

David S. Liebschutz, J.D., M.P.P. has joined CGR as Director of Strategic Planning and Analysis and head of the Albany NY office. He brings more than 20 years experience in government and academia to CGR.

CGR study of the first 2 years of Rochester's innovative "Lead Based Paint Poisoning Prevention" law shows nearly 3,440 housing units are being made lead safe. The number of children under age 6 with lead poisoning is also down.

Northeast Ohio funders debut a major online database illustrating "what a particular local government is paying for, where it gets its revenues, and how costs compare with selected peer areas," said Charles Zettek Jr., Director of Government Management Services for CGR, which developed the database for Ohio.

In a study of an innovative lead ordinance, CGR found nearly 1,400 housing units are being made lead safe as a result of the new law and compliance costs are lower than anticipated …

Local development corporations play a key role in public projects – ranging from major construction ventures to development of a high-speed telecommunications network – yet the public knows little about them ...