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Purpose of Budget Review

The purpose of our budget review was to provide an independent evaluation of the Village’s tentative budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

Background

The Village of Suffern, located in Rockland County, is authorized to issue debt not to exceed $5 million to liquidate the accumulated deficits in the Village’s general, water, sewer and capital projects funds as of May 31, 2015. New York State Local Finance Law Section 10.10 requires local governments that have been authorized to issue obligations to fund operating deficits to submit their tentative budgets for the next fiscal year to the State Comptroller for review while the deficit obligations are outstanding.

Key Findings

• We estimate the total 2023-24 collections for water and sewer rent revenues will be approximately $2.08 million and $2.47 million, respectively, which is approximately $155,000 less than budgeted for water revenues and approximately $448,000 less than budgeted for sewer rent revenues.
• The Village’s tentative budget includes a tax levy of $12,090,011, which is within the limit established by law.

Key Recommendations

• Further review the reasonableness of the water and sewer rent revenue estimates before adopting the budget.
• Be mindful of the legal requirement to maintain the tax levy increase to no more than the tax levy limit as permitted by law, unless the Board properly overrides the tax levy limit prior to adopting the budget.