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NEWS from the Office of the New York State Comptroller
Contact: Press Office 518-474-4015

DiNapoli: Village Fiscal Stress Declines Again

March 8, 2017

State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli's Fiscal Stress Monitoring System has identified nine villages in New York in some level of fiscal stress in 2016. Three villages were designated in "moderate fiscal stress" and six as "susceptible to fiscal stress." Last year, a total of 18 villages were listed in fiscal stress.

"This is the second year fiscal stress has declined in villages and the first year without a village in significant fiscal stress," said DiNapoli. "I commend local officials for this improvement and believe that sensible budgeting and closely following their multi-year financial plans can help extend financial stability into the future."

DiNapoli's office evaluated 535 villages, which predominantly have a fiscal year ending on May 31. The state has 10 villages with a Dec. 31 fiscal year end date that are not included on this list. Their scores will be released later this year.

Using financial indicators that include year-end fund balance, short-term borrowing and patterns of operating deficits, DiNapoli's monitoring system creates an overall fiscal stress score which classifies whether a municipality is in "significant fiscal stress," in "moderate fiscal stress," is "susceptible to fiscal stress," or has "no designation."

For the fiscal year ending 2016, the three villages in "moderate fiscal stress" are: Ellenville (Ulster County), Granville (Washington) and Gowanda (Cattaraugus). Those considered "susceptible to fiscal stress" are: Andover (Allegany), Catskill (Greene), Pomona (Rockland), Valley Stream (Nassau), Walden (Orange) and Wurtsboro (Sullivan).

Over the past three fiscal years, from 2014 through 2016, a total of 33 villages have received a fiscal stress designation in at least one year. The villages of Andover, Catskill, Pomona and Walden have been in stress each of those years.

The fiscal stress scores also show:

  • Long Island has seen the number of villages in stress decline from seven in 2013, to four in 2014, two in 2015 and one in 2016;
  • Ten villages moved out of fiscal stress in 2016; and
  • Twenty-eight villages did not file necessary data, or filed inconclusive data, each of the past three years and have not received a fiscal stress score during the period.

In January, DiNapoli released fiscal stress scores for school districts. In April, scores for the 17 cities with non-calendar fiscal years will be released. In September, his office will release scores for calendar year municipalities, which includes all counties, towns, 10 villages, and the majority of cities.

For a list of villages in fiscal stress, visit: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/fiscalmonitoring/localgovernments/pdf/2016/munis-stressed.pdf

To search the complete list of village fiscal stress scores, visit: http://wwe1.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/fiscalmonitoring/fsms.cfm

To see the fiscal stress summary report on school districts, visit: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/fiscalmonitoring/pdf/fouryearschools.pdf

To see the fiscal stress summary report for calendar-year based municipalities, visit: http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/fiscalmonitoring/pdf/threeyearsfsms0916.pdf