THE EXAMINER’S MICHAEL REED continues to lead the way in terms of METRO reporting, with this assessment of the organization’s precarious financial state relative to its grand plans. Here is an important takeaway, but be sure to read the entire story:
Based on the June 2010 unaudited report, Metro’s [liquidity ratio*] for 2009 appeared to be about 0.79-to-1, having fallen from 1.55-to-1 in 2007 to 1.03-to-1 in 2008, according to Metro financial reports for those years.
The FTA is already reviewing Metro funding documents following allegations the agency used outdated, pre-market-bust sales tax revenue projections in its November application for $900 million in funding. Metro has denied that allegation.
Clearly, METRO’s financial condition was deteriorating under the previous leadership, which largely kept the public in the dark about it**. Here’s hoping the “NEW METRO” will take a much more sober, public, look at the agency’s finances versus the agency’s grand plans — and put these sorts of murky Houston Way deals on hold in the interim.
* Defined elsewhere in the story as “cash, accounts receivable and nonrestricted investment portfolio vs. current liabilities.”
** Not that this was hard, given the lack of interest displayed by Chron reporter Mike Snyder, or even the Snyder/Falkenberg attacks on a KHOU reporter who was looking more closely at the rogue agency’s financial dealings.
