Local Government Publications

Search Audits for reports on municipalities and school districts dating back to 2014.

Research Reports > Debt, Revenues/Cash Management, Sales Tax

March 2007 –

The purpose of this report is to help shed light on how town special improvement districts are structured, how they operate, and what fiscal burden they impose on property owners.

Annual Reports > Claims Auditing/Credit Cards, Reporting

December 2006 –

Many school districts throughout the state have made considerable improvements to their financial controls over the last year. There are still opportunities for school districts to improve financial operations, and we continue to find occasional instances of serious problems and potential fraud. This report identifies additional opportunities for school districts to improve controls over information technology, employee benefit payments, claims auditing, no-bid contracts, capital assets and segregating duties.

Research Reports > Fiscal Stress, Sales Tax

December 2006 –

This research brief analyzed multiyear financial plans submitted by cities under a new State requirement. The Comptroller's analysis looks at 48 of these plans, excluding New York City. The report notes that quality of these plans varied greatly and urges the State to adopt a formal review and approval process of the plans, as well as more training for city officials.

Annual Reports > Debt, Sales Tax

November 2006 –

Highlighted within this report are some of the major fiscal trends in New York’s local governments and recent policy developments that affect their operations and financial health. This report helps illustrate the complex and changing environment in which local governments must operate, and the delicate balance local officials must achieve between service delivery and fiscal responsibility.

Accounting Notices and Bulletins > Reporting

October 2006 –

This bulletin highlights changes to fire district accounting and reporting requirements, and clarifies the new auditing requirements.

Research Reports > Reporting

October 2006 –

This study presents an analysis of our municipalities—cities, towns and villages—including a statistical regrouping that suggests what a modern classification system might look like if we started from scratch today, based on current conditions.

Accounting Notices and Bulletins > Reporting

July 2006 –

Section 10 of the New York State General Municipal Law was amended in 2005 to authorize an additional option for local governments to secure deposits and temporary investment of public funds. Under the new law, local governments have the option to accept as security a pledge of a pro rata portion of a "pool" of eligible securities. Local governments that choose to utilize the new pooled collateral option must take necessary steps to ensure that their deposits and investment are properly secure.

Accounting Notices and Bulletins > Budgeting, Sales Tax

June 2006 –

This bulletin highlights accounting and budgeting changes for counties who share their own sales tax revenues with other local governments within their boundaries. These changes are necessitated by the recent Statements from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB).

Research Reports > Reporting

May 2006 –

This report supplies context for the current policy discussion on Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs), details major process and accountability issues, describes efforts by the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) to improve reporting quality and provides a summary of statistical and financial information from 2004 IDA annual reports.

Accounting Notices and Bulletins > Reporting

May 2006 –

This bulletin highlights the Medicare Part D Federal prescription drug benefits program and provides appropriate accounting guidance for Federal subsidies received under this program.

Research Reports > Reporting, Revenues/Cash Management

April 2006 –

This research brief summarizes issues associated with the property tax, provides an overview of recent trends and analyzes the tax burden across regions and types of local government.

Research Reports > Financial Condition, Fiscal Stress, Revenues/Cash Management

February 2006 –

This research brief measures fiscal stress in cities and includes an overall fiscal profile of each city in the State (except New York City). Of the 61 cities examined, 13 exhibited one or more indicators of severe fiscal stress. The most severely affected cities exhibited stress across multiple factors. Many cities appear to be on the verge of more widespread fiscal difficulties.

Research Reports > Reporting

January 2006 –

Across the State, growing medicaid costs continue to place significant pressure on local fiscal conditions. See related: 2006 County by County data [pdf]

Guidance > General Oversight, Reporting

January 2006 –

These guidelines provide a framework and offer guidance that boards of education can use for establishing an audit committee charter. A sample charter is provided at the end of this guidance. This sample charter does not include all activities that might be appropriate to a particular audit committee, nor will all activities identified in this sample charter be relevant to every committee.

Accounting Notices and Bulletins > Reporting

November 2005 –

A new law was enacted (Chapter 58 of the Laws of 2005) to "cap" county Medicaid costs at calendar 2005 levels and limit growth rates to 3.5 percent in 2006 and 3.25 percent in 2007.

Annual Reports > Debt, Reporting, Revenues/Cash Management

September 2005 –

While many local governments are in stable financial condition, many are not—particularly upstate urban communities, where population losses and economic decline are eroding their ability to support basic governmental functions. As this report describes, there are very different underlying conditions facing municipalities depending on geography (upstate or downstate) and type of community (city versus suburb).

Research Reports > Fiscal Stress, Reporting, Revenues/Cash Management

May 2005 –

The “Big Five” cities of New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers either are, or have recently been, fiscally distressed. This affects their dependent school systems, which already face significant challenges associated with the socio-economic composition of their students and the age of their facilities.

Research Reports > Reporting

April 2005 –

Across the State, growing Medicaid costs continue to place significant pressure on local fiscal conditions. With most counties already seeking or receiving State legislative approval to increase their sales tax rates to 4 percent or more, and some dangerously close to exhausting their property tax margins, counties are being challenged to effectively deal with rising Medicaid costs.

Research Reports > Reporting, Revenues/Cash Management

February 2005 –

Unrestricted aid to local governments – known as revenue sharing – is State aid that can be used for any local government purpose. The intended goal is to redistribute tax dollars broadly to municipalities which do not have the tax base or taxing authority to generate this revenue on their own.

Research Reports > Reporting

December 2004 –

This research brief— focusing mainly on demographic trends—is the first of a series that will examine major issues facing local governments in New York State.