Albany County
CMA has served as Albany’s financial advisor since 1996. During this time we have assisted the county with over 40 note and bond financings. We have also provided analysis on special county projects including restructuring refunding debt for the county’s airport authority, coordinating borrowings for the county sewer district through the NYS Environmental Facilities Corp., analyzing funding options for the county’s convention center and conducting seminars on tobacco securitization for county officials. In connection with the county’s bond financings, CMA prepared scores of component amortization schedules by fund and by purpose for the county comptroller to simplify the county’s post-closing activities. CMA has successfully gone through two additional RFP processes since being hired by the county.
Erie County
In October 2006, following a rigorous RFP process, CMA was retained by the newly created Erie County Fiscal Stability Authority (“ECFSA”) which took over the debt issuing responsibilities of fiscally troubled Erie County in November of that year. Following our appointment, CMA led the effort to secure the initial credit rating for ECFSA and subsequently assisted that entity in issuing both short-term notes and long term bonds to finance Erie County’s myriad needs. To date, with its AA credit ratings, ECFSA has consistently been able to gain greater market access and significantly lower interest rates than the A-rated Erie County for the authority’s 5 bond issues and 5 note issues, thus allowing the authority to achieve its mandate of saving Erie County residents millions of dollars in debt service costs. CMA has successfully gone through three RFP processes since being hired by the ECFSA.
Monroe County
In December 2004, CMA replaced two of the largest financial advisors in New York State to become Monroe County’s new advisor. In selecting CMA over 6 other firms, county officials noted CMA’s quantitative sophistication, intimate knowledge of “the players” in New York State public finance and our comprehensive scope of services. Since our appointment, CMA has assisted with over fifteen note and bond sales totaling over $1 billion. We have worked with Monroe’s Tobacco Corporation on two tobacco financings for which we played a leading role in selecting underwriters and suggested a structuring change that resulted in significantly greater savings for Monroe as well as all of the other counties in the NYSAC Tobacco pool. In September 2014, CMA assisted the county with a successful, negotiated refunding bond issue. We routinely assist county officials as they size and sell large cash flow borrowings. CMA has successfully gone through three RFP processes issued by three different Commissioners of Finance since being hired by the County.
Niagara County
CMA was retained by the County in December 2010 and on January 27, 2011, we conducted our first sale for the county: $18.7 million bond anticipation notes. The county received 9 bids, was oversubscribed 7 times and sold the one-year notes at an attractive rate of 0.61%. In the ensuing three years, CMA assisted the County with several, successful note and bond issues. Throughout 2014, CMA worked with County’s Tobacco Asset Securitization Corporation (NTASC) on a complex financing that had NTASC reach out to holders of its outstanding tobacco bonds to tender the bonds back to NTASC at a negotiated tender price of $0.52 on $1,00. Since the County had already fully securitized its tobacco revenues, it had little expectation that it could get additional revenue from this source. Nevertheless, after months of negotiations and a refunding bond issue, the County realized $2 million in additional revenues as a result of this transaction. This issue was nominated as a “Bond Buyer Deal of the Year”.
Rockland County
The professionals at CMA have served as the independent financial advisor to Rockland County since 1996. Over the past 20 years, we worked with County officials on over 80 separate bond and note financings to fund capital projects, cash flow needs and refund existing bonds.We have worked with the County’s tobacco corporation on three separate tobacco securitizations using the proceeds to defease outstanding County general obligation bonds. CMA routinely prepares and moderates investor calls to generate additional investor support for the County’s TAN, RAN and bond issues.Over the past several years, the County’s credit rating had been under a great deal of negative pressure resulting in downgrades, however the County turned the corner in early 2014 and has found improved market support and access. In November 2015, the County sold bonds at competitive sale and received bids from 8 separate bidders. CMA has successfully gone through three RFP’s generated by three different Commissioners of Finance since being hired.
Suffolk County
CMA has served as Suffolk County’s financial advisor since 2002. Prior to forming CMA, Richard Tortora served as the County’s advisor since 1994. Over the past 25 years, Richard and his team have assisted the County with over 100 bond and note financings to fund capital projects and cash flow needs for a total par amount in excess of $15 billion. Each spring, we assist County officials in preparing and presenting a formal credit rating presentation for two of the three major rating agencies. In 2008, CMA took the lead in hiring the Suffolk Tobacco Asset Securitization Corporation’s underwriting team for a very successful $220+ million offering. In 2009, we conducted the first competitively sold advance refunding in the County’s history. Also that year, CMA suggested that the County buy out the Suffolk County Judicial Facility Authority’s interest in the Cohalan Court Complex, thereby significantly reducing the County’s costs associated with that facility. In 2013, CMA assisted the County and the Suffolk County Judicial Facilities Agency with the sale/leaseback of the Cohalan Court Complex. This innovative financing provided the County with a one-shot cash infusion that helped ease the County’s budget deficit. Over the years, CMA has identified and executed advance refundings of outstanding County bonds that have saved the County’s taxpayers over $35 million. In 2015, under Comptroller John Kennedy, CMA identified and assisted the County to execute two very successful refunding bond transactions that, collectively, saved County residents close to $16 million. During the last quarter of 2015, CMA Analyst Tom Vouzakis worked at the County’s offices as an extension of the Comptroller’s staff to assist the County to prepare for its second refunding bond issue and to assist with post-sale debt updates. CMA assisted the County with two advance refunding bond in issues in 2017.