Upcoming Lecture at the Lincoln Institute: Open Books: Towards Transparency in Municipal Finance

January 25, 2016

Announcing a Lincoln Lecture:
Lecture:	Open Books: Towards Transparency in Municipal Finance
Speaker:	Lynnette Kelly
Date:	Thursday, February 4, 2016 at 12:00 Noon - 2:00 PM
Location:	Lincoln House - 113 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

Overview:
Cities that finance public projects through municipal bonds owe their investors and the public an accurate and complete picture of their financial health. The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) is the regulator charged with ensuring the fairness and efficiency of the municipal market.  Join MSRB Executive Director Lynnette Kelly for an overview of the bond issuance process, the role of financial professionals and the importance of disclosure. Kelly will also introduce the wealth of educational resources in the MRSB's online Education Center. This event is the third in a yearlong series that is part of the Lincoln Institute's campaign to promote municipal fiscal health.

Speaker:
Lynnette Kelly is executive director of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB), a self-regulatory organization whose mission is to protect investors, state and local governments and other municipal entities, and the public interest by promoting a fair and efficient municipal securities market. The MSRB fulfills this mission by regulating the municipal securities firms, banks and municipal advisors that engage in municipal securities and advisory activities. To further protect market participants, the MSRB provides market transparency through its Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA®) website, the official repository for information on all municipal bonds. The MSRB also serves as an objective resource on the municipal market, conducts extensive education and outreach to market stakeholders, and provides market leadership on key issues. Ms. Kelly joined the MSRB in 2007 and oversaw the expansion of the MSRB as a result of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, which expanded the MSRB's mission to include the protection of municipal entities; she managed the development of new and amended rules, led the launch of the EMMA website in 2008 and has continued to champion increased transparency in the municipal market. In 2012, she received the Municipal Forum of New York's Public Service Award for her leadership in the municipal market and in 2006, she received the Industry Contribution Award from the National Federation of Municipal Analysts. Prior to joining the MSRB, she was a managing director and associate general counsel at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), where she helped SIFMA (formerly The Bond Market Association) develop and implement legal, regulatory and best market practices in the fixed income markets, with a focus on municipal finance. From 1990 to 1993, she served as general counsel for the Municipal Assistance Corporation for the City of New York, and has worked at several law firms in New York City in all areas of municipal finance. She graduated from the University of Nebraska and Tulane University School of Law, and is an accredited National Association of Corporate Directors Board Leadership Fellow.

Registration:
The event is free, but pre-registration is required.  Click here to register and see our website for directions.  Parking is not available at Lincoln House.  For questions, clickhere.

Lincoln Institute of Land Policy | 113 Brattle Street | Cambridge, MA 02138

Upcoming Lecture at the Lincoln Institute: Tax Breaks, Transparency and Accountability: A Conversation with Greg LeRoy

January 15, 2016 Announcing a Lincoln Lecture: Lecture: Tax Breaks, Transparency and Accountability: A Conversation with Greg LeRoy Speaker: Greg LeRoy Date:   Thursday January 28, 2016 at 12:00 Noon - 1:30 PM Location:   Lincoln House - 113 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 Overview: The "economic war among the states (and suburbs)" is on steroids, says Greg LeRoy, founder of Good Jobs First. Large companies such as, General Electric, Tesla, or Boeing have great power to play states and cities against each other for nine- and ten-figure subsidy packages.  There is no leadership for restraint from the federal government or the National Governors Association, and no success has been found in state or federal litigation strategies, he says. So activists have demanded greater transparency to win accountability. They have won a great deal of progress: every state now discloses at least some of its deal-making online, which Good Jobs First captures in Subsidy Tracker; money-back clawbacks and job quality standards are commonplace; and some communities have agreed to attach various community benefits to deals. Now with the adoption of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board GASB Statement No. 77 on Tax Abatement Disclosures, a new era of transparency is unfolding: for 2016 and beyond, states and most localities will have to account for the revenue they lose to corporate tax breaks. Even school districts that lose revenue passively will have to report such expenditures. Property taxes, whose records are so extremely dispersed, will be the most affected, gaining the most in transparency. This is significant because property tax abatements often comprise the single largest tax breaks in development deals. Join Greg LeRoy for a brief presentation followed by a conversation with Lincoln Institute President George W. "Mac" McCarthy. This event is the second in a yearlong series that is part of the Lincoln Institute's campaign to promote municipal fiscal health. Speaker: Dubbed "the leading national watchdog of state and local economic development subsidies" and "God's witness to corporate welfare," Greg LeRoy @GregLeRoy4 founded and directs Good Jobs First www.goodjobsfirst.org a national resource center promoting accountability in the >$70 billion spent annually by states and cities for economic development, and smart growth for working families. Good Jobs First is home to Subsidy Tracker, the only national database of subsidy awards (480,000 state, local and federal deals). He is the author of The Great American Jobs Scam: Corporate Tax Dodging and the Myth of Job Creation (2005) and No More Candy Store: States and Cities Making Job Subsidies Accountable (1994). Good Jobs First was recently honored by State Tax Notesmagazine as one of two organizations of the year in 2015 for its victory winning a new accounting rule from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. He earned a BSJ from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and an M.A. in U.S. history from Northern Illinois University. Registration: The event is free, but pre-registration is required.  Click here to register and see our website for directions.  Parking is not available at Lincoln House.  For questions, click here. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy | 113 Brattle Street | Cambridge, MA 02138 | www.lincolninst.edu

Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

A friend and frequent reader of this blog introduced me to Lincoln Institute some time ago.

The Institutes's Land Line January 2009 issue is available online.