Broome County aces fiscal stress test

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Broome County has received a perfect fiscal score from the state on its Fiscal Stress Monitoring Report from the comptroller’s office, Broome County Executive Jason Garnar announced.

The county received a score of 0.0 for the 2022 fiscal year. Scores are out of 100 and a lower score indicates a better fiscal outlook for a municipality.

“I’m extremely proud of the work we’ve done that has earned us this first perfect fiscal score in the history of the county,” Garnar said in a press release. “Working with Chairman Dan Reynolds and the entire legislature, we continue to craft responsible budgets that cut taxes, controls pending, and limit our short-term borrowing. Broome County taxpayers deserve to know their tax dollars are being used wisely, and this score from the comptroller’s office proves that’s what we’re doing.”

The county’s scored resulted in a “no designation” of fiscal stress from the comptroller’s office. There are four possible designations — significant, moderate, susceptible to, or no designation. DiNapoli’s office evaluates local governments on financial indicators including year-end fund balance, cash on hand, short-term borrowing, fixed costs, and patterns of operating deficits to create fiscal stress scores for each municipality in the state.