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Financial Consulting

HRG goes beyond project planning and design by helping you find the money you need to make projects happen. Our comprehensive knowledge of available funding programs enables us to design a unique package of bonds, loans, grants, and user charges to fit your budget.

We know that many factors must be taken into consideration when evaluating project affordability. Contrary to popular belief, grants may not always lower project costs because of administrative requirements that accompany the funding, changing government regulations and the keen competition for funds. Likewise, a public bond issue may be more cost-effective than a public agency’s subsidized interest loan. With this in mind, we carefully balance all the options for interest rates, repayment terms, loan conditions and program flexibility against your organization’s goals when creating a financial recommendation for your project.

In addition to project financing, our financial services staff can help you design your organization’s budget and provide assistance with valuation as well as economic impact analysis and feasibility studies.

Industry Knowledge
HRG provides financial services to private and public sector clients in a wide variety of industries, but we are particularly knowledgeable of financing and management strategies for municipalities and water and wastewater systems. In fact, we have made conference presentations for numerous organizations (including the Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities Association, Pennsylvania Water Environment Federation, National Association of Towns and Townships, and the Pennsylvania Builders Association) on the financing of water and wastewater infrastructure. We have also published several articles in The Authority magazine and other publications.

Our firm was originally founded to serve the water and wastewater utility industry in 1962, and we have expanded our forces to include municpal operations, as well. Thanks to our extensive experience, we understand the pressures water and wastewater utilities are under to meet changing government regulations and upgrade aging facilities while keeping user fees low. We also know available funding programs for water and wastewater infrastructure inside and out. It’s no accident that HRG has been able to obtain more than $250 million in both grants and for our clients from PENNVEST; it is a direct result of the comprehensive knowledge of our staff regarding this program’s funding requirements.

Grant Services
Our staff has a proven track record of positioning projects for grant funding from both state and federal agencies including: EPA, US Army Corps of Engineers, PENNVEST, DCED, DEP, DCNR and others. In addition, HRG is retained by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to review grant applications and provide construction monitoring services for the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP). This program funds major stadiums, arenas, cultural and performance venues throughout the state. We are also retained to perform construction controls reviews and financial analysis for PENNVEST.

Our experience with municipality management and the water and wastewater industry includes:
• Utility rate studies/User charge systems/Equitable rate structures.
• Impact fees/Assessment programs/Act 203/Act 57 capital charge studies.
• Valuation studies.
• Economic impact studies.
• Long-range capital plans and funding strategies.
• GIS for the management of utility, roadway, and property maintenance operations.

Financial System Planning/Design/Implementation
Our staff has helped numerous clients establish their financial systems. Specific services have included defining the chart of accounts; developing accounting policies and procedures; preparing budgets; developing rate strategies to fund major capital improvements, operations and maintenance; and analyzing rates required to support debt financing (including the Local Government Unit Debt Act filing requirements). We have also provided expert testimony on rate and valuation issues before regulatory agencies and courts.

Geographic Information Systems
Our staff has helped a number of municipalities integrate GIS into their daily operations in order to make the increasingly complex job of municipal management more efficient and cost-effective. Through GIS, a municipality’s utility billing, real estate tax, building permits, zoning, maintenance records and other databases can be integrated to provide municipal officials with powerful decision-making capabilities and significantly ease regulatory reporting requirements.

Regulatory Expertise
Our staff has played a key role in the development of procedures and language for Pennsylvania Act 203 of 1990 and Act 57 of 2003. These acts govern the calculation and imposition of capital charges such as connection fees, custom facilities fees, and tapping fees as they impact both utilities and builders and developers. In addition, members of our staff are routinely called as expert witnesses in cases relating to water and wastewater utility financing.