DiNapoli: Syracuse, Watertown not considered under fiscal stress

SYRACUSE — The cities of Syracuse and Watertown are among the upstate New York local governments not considered to be under stress in the fiscal-stress rankings that New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released today.

With today’s announcement, DiNapoli’s office completed the initial scoring for all local governments and school districts in New York.

The system uses a 100-point scale to classify whether a municipality is in significant fiscal stress (65 to 100 percent), in moderate fiscal stress (55 to 65 percent), is susceptible to fiscal stress (45 to 55 percent), or has no designation (below 45 percent), DiNapoli’s office said.

Syracuse had a stress score of 34.2 percent and Watertown had a score of 9.6 percent, landing them both in the “no designation” category.

Since implementing the system last year, DiNapoli’s office has evaluated the fiscal condition of nearly 2,300 municipalities and school districts across the state.

“This information has been well-received by local officials and taxpayers and it’s clear that we have created a tool that has helped them better understand their community’s true financial picture,” DiNapoli said in a news release. “But our work is not done. The value in our system will be borne out over time as it helps guide local budgeting decisions and the development of long-term financial plans.”

The creation of the “early warning” monitoring system is the centerpiece of the state comptroller’s fiscal-stress initiative, his office said.

The financial information that local communities provide to DiNapoli’s office serve as the basis for the fiscal-stress monitoring system.

The system uses financial indicators that include year-end fund balance, cash position, and patterns of operating deficits, to create an overall fiscal-stress score, according to DiNapoli’s office.

To date, DiNapoli’s monitoring system has identified a total of 142 municipalities in some level of fiscal stress. This includes 16 counties, 18 towns, five cities, 16 villages and 87 school districts.

DiNapoli’s fiscal-stress monitoring system in late 2013 identified Fulton as one of nine communities in “moderate stress.”

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com