DiNapoli announces budget stress scores

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Thirty New York state local governments have ended 2020 in some form of fiscal strain, state comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced today. The communities were identified by the controller’s financial stress monitoring system (FSMS).

DiNapoli publishes budget stress scores on municipalities (excluding New York City) twice a year. The latest round of scores announced today identified 19 designated local governments under fiscal stress, including six counties, four towns and nine cities. This release is based on financial information from local governments operating on a calendar year basis (January 1 to December 31) for 2020 and covers all counties and towns, 44 towns and 10 villages. In April, DiNapoli announced that 11 local governments with non-calendar exercises were in trouble.

“Local governments in New York have overcome some major tax hurdles during the COVID-19 pandemic,” DiNapoli said. “Federal aid, the reinstatement of state aid and the upsurge in income have given them much needed relief. However, those designated as stressed are less likely to have the flexibility to adjust to long-term budget challenges. Local officials need to budget and plan carefully to avoid fiscal stress and manage their communities through the uncertainties created by the pandemic. “

In this final round, the town of Poughkeepsie (tax stress score of 78.3), the town of Niagara Falls (72.1) and the town of Caneadea (65.4) are in the highest ‘stress’ designation. important ”. The counties of Suffolk and Westchester, the town of Glen Cove and the town of Yates were in “moderate stress”.

Those designated as “tax stress sensitive” are the counties of Broome, Monroe, Nassau and Oneida, the towns of Centerville, Clarkstown, Colony, Fort Covington, Pulteney, Sherman and Southport, and the town of Albany.

Of the 30 total governments in a budget stress designation for 2020, 17 were also under some form of budget stress in 2019. Four cities that were in “significant budget stress” in the two years are Niagara Falls, Poughkeepsie, Amsterdam and Long Beach.

DiNapoli’s budget stress monitoring system was put in place in 2013 to keep the public informed about factors affecting the financial health of local communities. The system assesses local governments on financial metrics, including year-end fund balance, available cash, short-term borrowing, fixed costs, and operating deficit patterns and creates stress scores budgetary.

The system also assesses information such as demographic trends, poverty and unemployment to establish a separate “environmental” score for each municipality that can be used to help describe the context in which these local governments operate.

In January, DiNapoli also released tax stress scores for school districts and found 31 school districts with some level of tax stress.

DiNapoli’s report also found:

  • In response to COVID-19, many local officials made tough budget decisions in mid-2020 on how to best meet their community’s service needs with reduced or less predictable incomes, while protecting health. public and minimizing cuts in their own workforce.
  • The rebound in monthly sales tax collections across much of the state has bolstered local government results, with many counties outside New York City recording only slight losses for 2020 overall. compared to 2019, and collections in some counties are even increasing for the year.
  • 173 local governments did not receive a budget stress score for the fiscal year ending 2020. The vast majority of them (169) did not file in time to be rated, including Beacon Towns, Dunkirk, Ithaca, Johnstown, Little Falls, Mechanicville, Mont Vernon, Rensselaer and Salamanca; and the counties of Greene and Ontario.

Lists
Municipalities in difficulty for the fiscal year ending in 2020
Municipalities that have not filed or that have not been designated as conclusive

Excel spreadsheet
Detailed list of all municipalities in state and budget stress scores

Report
Budgetary tension monitoring system Municipalities: Results for fiscal year 2020


Track state and local government spending at Open Book New York. As part of State Comptroller DiNapoli’s open data initiative, search millions of state and local government financial records, track state contracts, and find the most requested data.

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