NYS comptroller’s audit finds Village of Mexico didn’t adopt realistic budgets

MEXICO — New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli on Feb. 21 announced the results of six local government and school audits, including an audit of the Village of Mexico in Oswego County, regarding its financial management. The comptroller stated that the Village of Mexico board “did not adopt realistic budgets or manage fund balance. As a result, more taxes were levied than needed to fund operations.” For the four fiscal years reviewed (2019-20 through 2022-23), the board did not establish a fund-balance policy and maintained an excessive level of unassigned surplus fund balance in the general fund with balances ranging between nearly $840,000 and $1.1 million, or between 109 percent and 124 percent of the ensuing year’s budget, according to the audit report summery. The comptroller’s office said the Village of Mexico board did not consider historical or known trends of revenues and expenditures when developing the budgets, so revenues were underestimated by a total of almost $440,000 and expenditures were overestimated by a total of more than $287,000 for the audit period. The board also appropriated a fund balance of nearly $217,000 that was not needed to fund operations, which helped contribute to the accumulation of surplus fund balance, per the audit. Additionally, the property tax levy for 2023-24 was $509,000 while the village had more than $1.1 million in surplus funds available at the end of 2022-23 to use toward supplementing next year’s budget. DiNapoli’s office recommended that the Village of Mexico adopt a fund-balance policy and “realistic budgets based on historical trends and maintain a reasonable fund balance level.” “Village officials agreed with our recommendations and indicated they will take corrective action,” the comptroller’s office concluded in its audit report summary.   ν