DiNapoli: Westchester fiscally stressed, Poughkeepsie worse

Twice a year, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli releases a Fiscal Stress Monitoring System (FSMS) report that provides an analysis of the financial health of counties, municipalities and school districts.

The latest report, dated September 2021, finds that Westchester County was in moderate fiscal stress as of the end of December 2020. DiNapoli”™s FSMS reports assign stress scores that reflect each entity”™s ability to maintain budgetary solvency.

The description “moderate fiscal stress” was assigned to Westchester along with Suffolk County, the city of Glen Cove on Long Island and the town of Yates, which is located between Rochester and Niagara Falls.

The city of Poughkeepsie in Dutchess County was classified as being in “significant stress” along with the city of Niagara Falls and the town of Caneadea in Western New York.

Municipalities that are identified as being stressed “are less likely to have the flexibility to adapt to fiscal challenges long term,” according to DiNapoli.

He noted that there were financial challenges for all levels of government due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Local officials must budget and plan carefully to avoid fiscal stress and manage their communities through the uncertainties created by the pandemic,” DiNapoli said.

The report suggested that 2021 would be looking much brighter for local governments as state aid and federal assistance payments reach their coffers.

“However, there are still many unknowns,” the report said. “Covid-19 variants, vaccine resistance and labor shortages, among other factors, continue to make headlines and could impact sales tax or other revenues in the future.”

Westchester County Executive George Latimer last week told the Business Journal that the county”™s finances were in good shape, so much so that he is hopeful that the next county budget would include another cut in county property taxes, which would be the third in a row for his administration.

In all, the FSMS report found that there were 30 local governments in some form of fiscal stress. The stress determination takes into account year-end fund balance, cash on hand, short-term borrowing, fixed costs and patterns of operating deficits.