Reports

The recession greatly weakened the finances of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), and for nearly two years the MTA has been attempting to stabilize its finances by reducing waste, cutting services, and raising fares and tolls.

The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the State of New York for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011.

Along with technological advances comes the responsibility to protect confidential information adequately so that it cannot be accessed by unauthorized individuals. Failure to do so can come at a considerable financial cost.

On June 29, 2011, New York City adopted a $65.9 billion budget ($46.5 billion in City funds) for FY 2012, which began on July 1, 2011. While the budget is balanced, it relies on $5.1 billion in nonrecurring resources, including the FY 2011 surplus and a drawdown from the Retiree Health Benefits Trust. These resources will have to be replaced in subsequent years, and even though the City’s economy is slowly improving, the June 2011 financial plan (the “June Plan”) projects budget gaps that average $4.8 billion during fiscal years 2013 through 2015.

New York’s 57 counties (excluding New York City), 61 cities, 932 towns, and 556 villages reported spending nearly $2.6 billion to maintain 187,000 highway lane miles in 2009. Highway maintenance is one of the largest categories of expense for local governments, representing 7.6 percent of total local government expenditures.

Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) are public benefit corporations created by an act of the State Legislature on behalf of one or more local governments. IDAs are intended to advance the job opportunities, health, general prosperity and economic welfare of the people of the State of New York, and to improve their recreation opportunities, prosperity and standard of living.

New York City’s May 2011 financial plan (the “May Plan”) projects a surplus of $3.2 billion for FY 2011, resulting largely from a drawdown in reserves, higher revenues due to an improving economy, and agency cost-reduction actions. The City intends to transfer the surplus to FY 2012 to help balance that year’s budget.

For many years, budgets in New York State, in addition to being enacted after the start of the fiscal year, have been characterized by overly optimistic revenue estimates, unrealistic spending targets, and excessive reliance on temporary or non-recurring revenues.

Real property tax assessment is an important function of local governments. In 2009, New York’s city, county, town and village assessing units spent nearly $132 million and employed roughly 1,350 certified assessors, tax directors and assessment appraisers.

New York’s counties, cities, towns, and villages frequently utilize local development corporations (LDCs) and other private entities for economic development and other activities. These LDCs and similar private entities are exempt from many of the constitutional and statutory provisions that guide the operations and financial transactions conducted by local governments, increasing the risk of waste, fraud, or abuse of taxpayer dollars or assets. 

The federal government has been operating under Continuing Resolutions since the start of the new federal fiscal year that began October 1, 2010. Despite ongoing efforts between the President and Congress to reach agreement on a federal budget, taxpayers face the threat of the first federal government shutdown since 1996.

New York City’s economy is recovering from the recession at a faster pace than the nation and the rest of New York State. Since job losses ended in November 2009, the City has gained 73,400 private sector jobs, or half of the jobs lost in the recession, but public sector job losses are beginning to accelerate. While the unemployment rate has declined from a peak of 10 percent to 8.9 percent, it remains unacceptably high.

The 2011-12 Executive Budget proposes a $1.5 billion net cut in State aid to schools, which would result in a 7.3 percent decrease in aid to districts statewide, translating to a 2.9 percent reduction to total general fund budgets.

District by District report - pdf

The budget process for State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2011-12 is well underway, with several milestones reached. On March 1, the Executive and the Legislature reached consensus on an economic and revenue forecast for the current year and the next, and on March 3, the Executive submitted final amendments to the proposed budget.

This report describes the fiscal challenges facing school districts in New York State. As with other classes of government, school districts have struggled to maintain fiscal balance in the midst of rising costs and declining economic conditions.

Regional Profiles

This report is the seventh in a series of reports on the capital security program of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

The State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2011-12 Executive Budget makes significant progress in addressing the State’s structural deficit by bringing recurring spending into better alignment with recurring revenue.

New York City’s economy is recovering from the recession at a faster pace than the nation and the rest of New York State. In the ten months after December 2009, the City regained 76,300 private sector jobs—about 47 percent of the jobs lost— but the unemployment rate remains high.

Over the past ten years, New York has spent $63.2 billion to support its capital program. Despite this significant investment, there are many critical capital needs across the State that remain unmet, calling into question the adequacy and effectiveness of the current capital planning and financing process.

This Report on Estimated Receipts and Disbursements for State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2010-11 through SFY 2012-13, issued pursuant to Chapter 1 of the Laws of 2007, is intended to facilitate continuing discussion of the State’s economic condition and the State Budget.