Reports

The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the New York State and Local Retirement System (the System or NYSLRS) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016.

After closing deep projected budget gaps just a few years ago, New York State’s short-term financial condition has improved. The State’s General Fund ended SFY 2015-16 with an exceptionally large balance, which enhances budgetary flexibility in the near term and is expected to support increased capital investment and other purposes over multiple years.

Countless New Yorkers have found higher education the path to a more satisfying and financially secure life. Each year, college graduates, young and not-so-young, embark upon new opportunities that may have been unattainable without the benefits of college and university studies.

Chapter 566 of the Laws of 2015, the “Enterprise Fraud, Waste and Abuse Prevention and Detection Act” (Act), codified as State Finance Law § 8-c, was enacted in December 2015 and took effect on April 19, 2016. The Act sets forth provisions for a Statewide electronic system to help detect and prevent waste, fraud, and abuse and the improper payment of public moneys.

The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the State of New York for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016.

An economic recession, as the old saying goes, is when your neighbor becomes unemployed—and a depression is when it happens to you. A similar logic applies to economic recoveries: whatever the experts may say about the national outlook, most of us are especially concerned about good jobs and good wages in our own communities.

Each year when the State’s budget is enacted, much attention understandably is devoted to its immediate impact. But New York’s history shows that we also need to pay attention to the longer term.

The New York State Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (“MWBE”) Asset Management and Financial Institution Strategy (Chapter 171, Laws of 2010) was enacted to codify and replicate best practices for providing MWBEs (or firms) that are asset managers, investment banks and financial and professional service providers with the opportunity to offer services to fiduciary-controlled entities established by New York State law.

New York State continues to experience record numbers of homeless people. Generally, the focus of media coverage and policy discussions is on New York City and other large metropolitan areas as they contain the largest populations of homeless.

It seems that every community in New York State is experiencing the heartbreak of lives lost to prescription opioid abuse and heroin addiction.

In the 2015-2016 fiscal year, State agencies paid interest totaling $1,462,835, representing a decrease of $62,277 from the prior year.

Although overall results have improved, State agencies continue to have difficulty meeting established time frames. In 2015, State agencies reported that 61 percent of grant contracts with NFPs were not approved by the start or renewal date. This compares with 77 percent as reported in 2014.

New York State ended State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2015-16 in an improved fiscal position, largely reflecting an influx of non-recurring resources.

New York State’s short-term fiscal picture has improved in recent years, thanks to factors that include an extraordinary level of one-time financial settlement resources.

The State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2016-17 Enacted Budget includes a significant increase in school aid as well as a multibillion dollar reduction in personal income taxes to be phased in over nearly a decade.

Since taking office in 2007, I have made the environment one of my office’s top priorities. I’ve enacted green agency operations at my own office while helping other State agencies become more environmentally friendly.

Small businesses play a big role in the New York State economy.

Growth in tax receipts and lower-than-anticipated spending through the first three quarters of SFY 2015-16 have bolstered the State’s fiscal position as it approaches a new fiscal year.

This report by the Office of the State Comptroller on use of overtime by New York State agencies examines patterns over the past nine calendar years. The total cost of overtime in calendar year 2015 was more than $716 million covering roughly 16.8 million overtime hours worked.

In 2015, OSC completed 23 audits of expenses submitted to SED by preschool special education providers. These audits have cumulatively identified over $10 million in disallowances, or about 3.4 percent of the total claimed expenses of almost $301 million for the audit period.