Saugerties Mayor Bill Murphy is pushing back on a recent report by the state comptroller’s office that identified the Village of Saugerties as the only village in New York in “significant fiscal stress,” claiming the study — which his office has yet to receive — was incomplete, inaccurate and lacked clarity.
In a report released on Wednesday, March 27, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced six villages designated in fiscal stress under the state’s Fiscal Stress Monitoring System (FSMS); of the six, only Saugerties was designated in “significant fiscal stress.” The Village of Coxsackie (Green County) was classified as in “moderate fiscal stress,” while four others — Chateaugay (Franklin County), Sackets Harbor (Jefferson County), South Dayton (Cattaraugus County) and Whitehall (Washington County) — were identified as “susceptible to fiscal stress.”
“The number of local governments in stress remains low after emergency federal aid helped many stabilize their finances over the past few years,” DiNapoli said in a press release. “With that aid winding down, local officials should be closely monitoring their financial conditions, as some may have tougher choices ahead.”
According to the comptroller’s office, the March 27 report evaluated the fiscal health of 519 villages — most of which have a fiscal year ending on May 31 — across New York using self-reported data for 2023. It also covered 17 cities with non-calendar fiscal years, including what was called the “Big 4” of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers, all of which have fiscal years ending on June 30.
According to the comptroller’s report, the Village of Saugerties failed to file data in time to be scored in 2022, and had a score in 2021 just below the threshold to receive a stress designation. But Murphy shared with Hudson Valley One a screenshot from the state’s own database indicating that Saugerties did submit its 2022 financial reporting in a timely manner.
Murphy said village officials have reviewed the report on the state website and found it to be incomplete or vague.
“We have been financially sound in years past and the reason being not raising the village taxes for ten years,” Murphy said. “As a matter of fact, from 2013-2023 we lowered the rate each year to try and assist our residents with increased assessments. As a result of this, we were required to apply for a TAN (tax anticipation note) in May 2023 which was fully paid back in three months by August of 2023. This is also reflected in the report without explanation.”
Murphy added that the FSMS report only covers municipalities who actually submit their data, which happens infrequently. Beyond his belief the report is inaccurate, Murphy said it cast the Village of Saugerties as singularly troubled when hundreds of local governments failed to submit any data at all.
Of the more than 500 municipalities who didn’t file, few were singled out in the comptroller’s report, and only those which were ranked in stress and simply stopped filing in time to be scored. The Village of Island Park (Nassau County) received a designation of “significant fiscal stress” in 2020 and hasn’t filed since. The Village of Catskill (Greene County) received a designation of “susceptible to fiscal stress” in 2019, the last year they filed on time.
The FSMS system has been in place since 2012, assessing levels of fiscal stress in local governments using financial indicators including year-end fund balance, cash position, short-term cash-flow borrowing and patterns of operating deficits. It then compiles overall fiscal stress scores and determines final classifications. The system also analyzes separate environmental factors to offer insight into the relative health of local economies and other challenges that might affect a local government’s or school district’s finances. This information includes population trends, poverty and unemployment.
Whatever the FSMS system is designed to do, Murphy said it didn’t work for the Village of Saugerties, which he said is in much better shape than the comptroller’s office believes. And if so many municipalities are failing to provide their own data, what is it really saying about individual local governments in comparison to others?
“There were 529 Municipalities in New York State that did not file (for 2023) and had no designation status,” Murphy said. “So, I guess we would have been better off not to file.”
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