New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has issued reports that are critical of the City of Yonkers’ budget for 2024-2025 and also the Village of Airmont in Rockland County for not auditing invoices from vendors before paying them, resulting in overpayments. The report as released before the Yonkers City Council on June 11 adopted the new $1.5 billion budget.
DiNapoli’s office found that some significant revenue and expenditure projections in the proposed Yonkers budget were in its view unreasonable. The report criticized city officials for continuing the practice of using debt to pay for recurring costs. The review determined the city’s proposed budget continues to rely on $87.9 million in nonrecurring revenue, such as appropriated fund balance, one-time state funding and sale of property, to finance its operations and includes revenue estimates that may not be achievable.
DiNapoli’s report found that the Yonkers budget includes revenue estimates for temporary municipal assistance, police, real estate transfer tax, city and state mortgage tax, housing and buildings, parking violation bureau, hotel room and occupancy tax, metered water sales and sewer rents that may not be achievable. It also says that appropriations for police overtime, medical insurance, employee retirement, firefighting overtime and Social Security taxes likely are underestimated. DiNapoli’s report found that the budget doesn’t taken onto account that six of the city’s eight union collective bargaining agreements have expired or will expire soon and that Yonkers could face additional expenditures when these contracts are settled. DiNapoli’s report found that the Yonkers Public School District budget, included in the city budget, has a deficit of at least $61.9 million.
DiNapoli’s report made nine recommendations to Yonkers including finding additional funding sources and amending cost figures to reflect costs that will be going up.
A report by DiNapoli about spending by the Village of Airmont in Rockland County found that the village’s Board of Trustees did not audit claims before payment to ensure that claims were for appropriate village purposes, accurate, and adequately supported.
DiNapoli’s report on Airmont said it found overpayments and claims with insufficient documentation to ensure they were appropriate.
DiNapoli’s office reviewed 30 claims totaling $883,765 of the $3.3 million in claims paid during the audit period and determined that none of these claims were audited by the board. In addition, one vendor may have been overpaid $36,905 for snow plowing services due to the vendor’s use of the higher year-end Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate instead of the monthly CPI rate. DiNapoli’s audit also found that six claims totaling $42,406 did not comply with Airmont’s purchasing policy and lacked documentation to ensure claims were appropriate, accurate and approved.
DiNapoli recommended that Airmont conduct an independent, deliberate, and thorough audit of claims prior to payment.
