Audit Objective

Determine whether Town of Tioga (Town) officials established long-term capital and financial plans.

Key Findings

Town officials did not establish long-term capital and financial plans, which provide a framework to assess the Town’s capital and financial needs and identify appropriate funding and financing approaches to address them.

As a result, half of the Town’s vehicles and pieces of major highway equipment are beyond their usable life by an average of nearly 15 years, including two pieces of equipment that required repairs or alterations which may impact employee safety.

The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) rated a Town-owned bridge as being in poor condition in 2019.While officials have set aside $51,539 for bridge repairs, the Highway Superintendent (Superintendent) estimates the lowest cost to repair the bridge to good condition is $200,000 and replacing the bridge could cost $1.4 million.

Key Recommendations

• Develop long-term capital and financial plans.
• Consider funding reserves for the Town’s capital project and highway capital equipment needs.

The Supervisor and Superintendent submitted separate responses to our report. Both generally disagreed with our recommendations but the Superintendent indicated he has taken certain corrective action. Appendix B includes our comments on certain issues they raised in their responses.