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Mount Pleasant was flagged as being “susceptible to fiscal stress” and scored 50.8 percent in 2012 during the comptroller’s first Fiscal Stress Monitoring System report.
“This was due to the need to use the fund balance to fund operations rather than raise taxes,” Mount Pleasant Supervisor Joan Maybury told Daily Voice.
Mount Pleasant’s score for 2013 is 12.9 percent or four out of a possible 29 points, which earned it a “no designation” in the recent round of the monitoring system’s reports.
“With layoffs of personnel, close monitoring of expenditures and reduction in spending, the Town was able to begin to recoup some savings,” said Maybury. “With the increase in revenues generated by development and the return of some level of funding from sales and mortgage taxes, the Town now has a sufficient fund balance.”
Click here and search "Mount Pleasant" to download the Town's full report.
The system evaluates local governments as well as school districts annually and assigns them a “fiscal condition score” aimed at helping municipalities and school districts prioritize their financial futures.
Scores for local governments are determined by 23 financial and environmental indicators, including the amount in a municipality's fund balance, patterns of operating deficits, population trends, poverty and unemployment.
The recent Fiscal Stress Monitoring System report found that about 18 percent of counties and 16 percent of cities are in fiscal stress, while less than two percent of towns were in stress.
The report also found downstate communities are more than twice as likely than upstate communities to be in some state of financial stress.
“Clearly New York’s local governments continue to face daunting challenges that strain their finances and are pushing them to the edge,” said New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
“Last year, I implemented this system to provide New Yorkers with an objective analysis to help them understand the economic and budgetary challenges facing their communities. These fiscal scores should serves as a starting point for frank discussions at the local level so actions can be taken before a fiscal crisis develops.”
Click here to view the full report.
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