METUCHEN, N.J., Aug. 27, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Detailed pension liability analysis is coming to New Jersey in the form of cloud-based software thanks to a research alliance between the Mercatus Center at George Mason University (Mercatus) and Community Informatics Inc. (Community Informatics or The Company), a privately held government data and analytics company.
The Company intends to develop and integrate original pension liability research into its proprietary cloud software suite, giving its municipal clients instant online access to an analysis of their pension liabilities. This service will complement Community Informatics' existing turn-key financial-planning offerings for municipalities - which utilize robust, pre-populated, historical data to provide clear, detailed, meaningful metrics and analytics for multi-year budgeting, forecasting, and multi-town comparison.
Community Informatics and the Mercatus Center will jointly analyze municipal pension data for specific towns in New Jersey and the analyses will be reviewed by one of the country's foremost thought-leaders in the pension arena, Mercatus' senior research fellow, Eileen Norcross.
Frank Abella, Chairman of Community Informatics, stated, "Given the fiscal constraints of our towns and counties, it is crucial that municipalities take steps to become aware of their actual pension exposures as they attempt to perform long-range financial planning. The Mercatus Center is a world-renowned institution that has demonstrated both leadership and credibility in the pension arena, so the agreement that we have forged is an amazingly unique opportunity for us to apply academic rigor and confirmation to the methodology of our approach."
Eileen Norcross, Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center, stated, "The lack of reliable data on the financial condition of municipal pensions is a real roadblock to scholars who would like to get a better understanding of the state of public sector pensions as well as their impact on municipal budgets. What Community Informatics and faculty members at Stevens Institute are offering could be a game changer both for academic research and for local governance."
Michael Fedorochko, CEO of Community Informatics, praised the alliance as "a major step forward in utilizing data and analytics to help municipal clients understand the reality in which they operate."
About Community Informatics, Inc.:
Community Informatics is a privately held government data and analytics company that provides access to standardized local, state, and federal data through its proprietary cloud-based software suite named MunicipalOutlook. The company's platform includes powerful analytical and search tools, giving municipal and local government clients instant access to the data and analyses they need to plan effectively in an increasingly tough budget climate. www.communityinformaticsinc.com
About the Mercatus Center at George Mason University:
The Mercatus Center at George Mason University is the world's premier university source for market-oriented ideas—bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems. A university-based research center, Mercatus advances knowledge about how markets work to improve people's lives by training graduate students, conducting research, and applying economics to offer solutions to society's most pressing problems. Our mission is to generate knowledge and understanding of the institutions that affect the freedom to prosper and to find sustainable solutions that overcome the barriers preventing individuals from living free, prosperous, and peaceful lives. Founded in 1980, the Mercatus Center is located on George Mason University's Arlington campus. www.mercatus.org