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Report Names NY's Most Fiscally Stressed Muni's

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New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is out with his Fiscal Stress Monitoring Report, which grades municipalities based on financial information and environmental data.   The City of Albany is among the localities tagged as under fiscal stress.

The report reveals 15 municipalities had low fund balances and operating deficits that define them as having been under “significant” fiscal stress in 2014. Another 11 experienced moderate stress. Eighteen more were considered susceptible. 

Topping the “significant” list: Monroe County, taking the No. 1 slot from Rockland County for the first time since DiNapoli began the fiscal stress system, now in its third year.

  • Fiscal Stress Monitoring System Search Tool

Also among the 15: the city of Albany; the nearby town of Coeymans, and East Fishkill in Dutchess County.
Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan says New York’s capital city isn't surprised by the comptroller's findings.        “It's a very objective set of criteria that they use, and we knew that the 2014 budget which was adopted in '13, was gonna trigger the 50 percent of it, of the score, is tied to how much of the fund balance you use, so there was a significant amount of fund balance used to balance that budget. We were able to reduce that number from what it was: 10 million usage of fund balance to only using 2 million of fund balance here in 2015. And we've taken measures in the 2015 budget and in the 2016 budget that we'll be proposing next week to keep a lid on costs to control our costs, to find opportunities to cut so that we can get on with moving towards a sustainable budget.”

City treasurer Darius Shahinfar explained that another negative factor was the loss of so-called “spin up” money beginning in 2014, resulting in a loss of nearly $8 million in cash. He added that through careful management, the city didn't have to borrow money to pay its operating bills. [More...]

Elsewhere, the city of Glens Falls and town of Colonie are under moderate stress.  Albany and Columbia counties, along with the city of Watervliet and the Chemung County Town of Elmira, appear on the "susceptible to fiscal stress list."

Albany County Executive Dan McCoy says the comptroller's report shows that work to improve county finances is taking hold.    “We had to make tough decisions early on when I first ran for County Executive in 2011, going into 2012. And as you know, our stress level was much higher back then when I first took office. So, some of the things that we have done is tackle the nursing home, that we were losing a million dollars  a month on. Our reserves was at an all-time low when I first took over, now we've doubled that. But, most importantly, we've been borrowing $15 million a year for the last six years to make payroll. And this is the first time in six years that we have not had to borrow money. So all these factors and the way we've come out with a fiscal plan, for the last four years, and we're gonna continue on for the next four, has really turned the finances around in the county. Although we still have much more work to do, it's gettin' better every year.”

McCoy notes that his budget for 2015 was enacted with a zero percent tax increase. The 2016 Executive Budget proposal also includes additional funding for the Albany County Land Bank and seniors’ programs. 

Comptroller DiNapoli's findings are based on 2014 financial information gathered from more than 1,000 municipalities whose fiscal year ended December 31st.

threeyearsfsms_0915.pdf by Nick Reisman

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.
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