Comptroller: Broome, St. Lawrence counties, Town of Parish under “significant fiscal stress”

Broome County, St. Lawrence County, and the Town of Parish in Oswego County are among 15 local governments that are considered to be under “significant fiscal stress.”

It is the highest designation under New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s fiscal-stress monitoring system.

The comptroller also lists 11 local governments in the second highest category of “moderate fiscal stress.” In Central New York, that includes the cities of Fulton and Little Falls.

The system has designated a total of 44 municipalities statewide as “fiscally stressed,” DiNapoli’s office said in news release Wednesday.

The state comptroller based the latest round of scores on 2014 financial information that local governments provided to his office as of Aug. 31, 2015 and includes only municipalities with fiscal years ending on Dec. 31, 2014.

St. Lawrence County is among four counties categorized as having “significant stress” for all three years that DiNapoli’s office has examined financial records using his fiscal-stress monitoring system.

“The financial trends in some local governments have not improved over the past three years, and it is looking tougher for New York’s cities,” DiNapoli said in the release. “While it is clear that our municipalities continue to struggle with balancing revenues against increasing costs, we also know that sensible budgeting and developing comprehensive multiyear financial plans are crucial to overcoming both current and future fiscal challenges.”

The fiscally-stressed governments identified Wednesday join the previously announced 115 municipalities and school districts that have been classified in some level of fiscal stress as of their 2014 fiscal year end date, according to DiNapoli’s office.

The comptroller’s monitoring system evaluates local governments on nine financial indicators and creates a fiscal-condition score, his office said.

Indicators include fund balance, cash-on-hand, and patterns of operating deficits at the local governments.

The system also evaluates other community information such as population trends, poverty, and unemployment. Each municipality receives a separate score, called the environmental score, for those factors.

State help

Gov. Andrew Cuomo last year signed into law DiNapoli’s legislative proposal to help local governments across New York improve their long-term budget planning, the state comptroller’s office said.

The law allows the state’s Financial Restructuring Board for Local Governments to reimburse counties, cities, towns and villages identified as fiscally stressed for all or part of the costs associated with long-term budget planning. That could include hiring financial advisors to help develop multi-year budget plans.

Multi-year financial planning is a tool that will enable these entities to develop revenue and expenditure trends, establish long-term priorities and goals, and take into consideration the impact of near-term budgeting decisions on future fiscal years, the comptroller contends. It also allows officials to assess alternative approaches to financing operations.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com