By Krystle Morey & Matthew Saari
The state Comptroller’s office recently released a series of reports detailing the fiscal health of towns across the state.
Granville
State officials say Granville is on the right track fiscally but is susceptible to environmental stress.
A report released by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s Office indicated that the town had “no designation” of financial stress, based on data collected for 2017.
Granville received a score of 6.7 percent out of a possible 100. Though this is more than double its measurement last year – 3.3 percent, Supervisor Matt Hicks said he is not worried.
“Even though we went from 3.3 to 6.7 … it’s still staggeringly low compared to what they’re trying to monitor,” Hicks said.
The state projected Granville’s stress would increase, but not at the level it did. It was projected to be just 4.4 percent stressed.
“We run a pretty tight ship and my predecessors ran a pretty tight ship … and we are consistently thinking about no debt, no debt, no debt. If you can stay out of debt, that’s going to help you long-term,” Hicks said.
Whitehall
The town of Whitehall is in perfect fiscal health, according to data released recently by the state Comptroller’s Office.
Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s third quarter fiscal stress reports analyze the financial well-being of towns statewide based upon data collected during 2017.
Each municipality receives points in categories such as fund balance, operating deficits, cash position, use of short-term cash flow, and fixed costs. The more points a town receives, the worse off financially it is.
The town of Whitehall received a score of zero out of a possible 100 points. This is a reduction of 15.8 points over the previous year.
Being that the data analyzed was during the tenure of former supervisor George Armstrong, The Times contacted him for his insight on the matter.
“We’re in good shape,” he said.
The biggest improvement over last year was in the fund balance category. Last year the town received 12.5 points in this metric.
Dresden
While neighboring Whitehall may have received perfect marks from the state Comptroller, Dresden received only hash marks during this year’s fiscal stress audit.
Dresden lacking a score – for better or worse – is because the necessary reports haven’t been filed with the Comptroller’s office in many years.
“The town won’t have a fiscal stress score because the town’s annual reports haven’t been sent in,” said George Gang, who was town supervisor for the data collection period (2017).
The last financial report the Comptroller’s office has on file for Dresden is for the 2012 fiscal year.
“But notably, it was filed in July 2016,” said Brian Butry, deputy press secretary of the Comptroller’s office.
Prior to this report, Gang said the last report filed was in 2007.
This is only a preview of the story published in the Whitehall Times. To read the full story, pick up a print copy of this week’s paper at the newsstand or read it online here.
This is only a preview of the story published in the Granville Sentinel. To read the full story, pick up a print copy of this week’s paper at the newsstand or read it online here.