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NEWS from the Office of the New York State Comptroller
Contact: Press Office 518-474-4015

DiNapoli Releases Fiscal Stress Scores for 17 Cities

April 23, 2015

State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli issued fiscal stress scores today for the 17 cities in New York that have fiscal years ending between March 31 and July 31.

“Whether a municipality is impacted by economic challenges or structural budget imbalances, our monitoring system is producing data that can help better predict fiscal stress,” said DiNapoli. “Local leaders, however, are on the frontlines and must use this information to continue to budget carefully and develop sound multiyear financial plans.”

Using financial indicators that include year-end fund balance, short-term borrowing and patterns of operating deficits, the monitoring system creates an overall fiscal stress score which classifies whether a municipality is in “significant fiscal stress,” in “moderate fiscal stress,” is “susceptible to fiscal stress” or has “no designation.”

The cities of Yonkers and Long Beach were both found to be in “moderate fiscal stress” while the city of Utica was designated as “susceptible to fiscal stress.”

The designations announced today covered 17 cities with fiscal year ends ranging from March 31, 2014 through July 31, 2014. This list includes: Auburn, Batavia, Buffalo, Corning, Hornell, Lackawanna, Olean, Rochester, Salamanca, Syracuse, Watertown and White Plains. Each of these municipalities were classified in the “no designation” category. The city of Rensselaer is still under review, while the city of Amsterdam failed to file its financial information for the 2014 fiscal year and could not be classified.

To date, a total of 115 municipalities and school districts have been classified in some level of fiscal stress as of their 2014 fiscal year end date. In September, DiNapoli will release the updated fiscal scores for all counties, towns and the majority of cities in New York.

To search for a specific local government’s fiscal stress scores, visit:
http://wwe1.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/fiscalmonitoring/fsms.cfm

For an overview of Comptroller DiNapoli’s Fiscal Monitoring System, visit:
http://www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/fiscalmonitoring/index.htm

For access to state and local government spending and 50,000 state contracts, visit OpenBookNY. The easy-to-use website was created by DiNapoli to promote openness in government and provide taxpayers with better access to the financial workings of government.