Determining Fiscal Stress of Municipal Entities in 2013

The New York State Comptrollers Office recently released a report on their Fiscal Stress Monitoring System for various municipal entities across New York State. They also have a website where you can search for these municipal entities by name, etc. at http://wwe1.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/fiscalmonitoring/fsms.cfm.

The object of the monitoring system is to help New York State local officials deal with fiscal challenges and to identify clearly those local governments and school districts that are moving towards, or are already in, fiscal stress. Such monitoring of the fiscal health of local governments and school districts should allow for early actions to prevent these entities from ending up in severe fiscal stress. The preventive actions – ideally developed with active participation from citizens who will be affected − should result in less cost and less disruption to vital services.

The Fiscal Stress Monitoring System evaluates local governments (counties, cities, towns and villages)and school districts based on both financial and environmental indicators. The financial indicators will be calculated using financial data that is filed in annual update documents (AUDs) by each local government and in annual financial reports (ST-3s) for school districts. A score will be calculated for each financial indicator to arrive at an overall score for each local government and school district, which will then be used to classify whether the unit is in “significant fiscal stress,” “moderate fiscal stress,”is “susceptible to fiscal stress,” or “no designation.” 

Below are the stress scores for entities from Herkimer and Oneida Counties. For a full explanation of the scores visit the Comptroller's link above.

Herkimer County

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Oneida County

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The website will also give you a full fiscal self assessment of each municipal entity if you click on their scores.

Fiscally Stressed Communities: NYS Comptrollers Designations FY2012

Two dozen communities in New York have been designated as fiscally stressed under State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli’s new Fiscal Stress Monitoring System. The list includes eight counties, three cities and 13 towns, none of which are in our region.

DiNapoli’s monitoring system evaluates local governments on 23 financial and environmental indicators and creates an overall fiscal condition score. Indicators include cash-on-hand and patterns of operating deficits, together with broader demographic information like population trends and tax assessment growth. The scores are used to classify whether a community is in “significant fiscal stress", “moderate fiscal stress", “susceptible to fiscal stress,”or “no designation".

The municipalities found to be in stress share a number of common characteristics, such as low fund balance, a continued pattern of operating deficits and inadequate cash on hand to pay their bills. In addition to the 24 fiscally stressed municipalities, DiNapoli said 18 communities have been listed as “under review” and continue to have their information vetted. There are also 124 local entities that have been designated as “have not filed,” meaning they have yet to submit necessary financial information due to the Comptroller’s office. The remaining communities have been classified as “no designation.” This system measures the level of fiscal stress a municipality is facing. A municipality’s absence from the top three categories should not be viewed as substantiation of good financial condition by the Comptroller’s office.

 Here are the designations for our region.

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