Reports

Local sales tax collections totaled $5.2 billion in the third quarter (July-September of 2021), up $861 million (20%) from the same period last year and continuing the trend of exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

Regional Table [.xlsx]

Wall Street’s run of prosperity extended into the first half of 2021 with $31 billion in pre-tax earnings, beating 2020’s outsized first half profits of $27.6 billion. Despite continued strong profitability, employment in the industry in New York City has sagged, even as it has ticked upward in the rest of the nation. Average salary, including bonuses, reached $438,000, the highest of any industry and nearly five times higher than the average in the rest of the private sector.

Comptroller DiNapoli has launched his new online tool to monitor spending of federal recovery aid and COVID-19 relief programs in the State. The dashboard explains each federal and State program, and how much has been received and spent to date. The data will be updated monthly and New Yorkers can use the tool to understand how federal aid is used and to inform future conversations about budget priorities.

The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out years of growth in New York City’s office sector. Stay-at-home orders forced many office workers to shift to remote work, as businesses reliant on in-person interactions with customers were forced to reduce capacity or remain closed for extended periods. As a result, in City Fiscal Year 2022, the full market value of office buildings fell $28.6 billion, the first decline in more than 20 years, and property taxes declined more than $850 million. Timing its recovery is an open question, however, as employers continue to offer work-from-home options.

The case studies described in this report provide insight into some of the fiscal challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic presented to individual local governments in 2020. OSC staff conducted interviews and financial analysis in late fall 2020, choosing the Mid-Hudson region as the geographical focus. The City of Peekskill, the Town of Cornwall and the Village of New Paltz agreed to participate in the study. Each had its own unique experience in 2020, but each also shows some of the typical problems facing local governments throughout the region and the State.

State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2020-21 will long be remembered for the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and for the resilience demonstrated by New Yorkers in responding to the multitude of challenges.

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, 2021.

The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the State of New York for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the MTA has been in a state of existential crisis. The Comptroller’s annual report on the MTA’s finances details how the combination of higher spending, the winding down of federal aid, the risk of lower ridership levels, increased impact from extreme weather, potential service reductions and other factors put the MTA in danger starting in 2025.

The crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic came at a time when NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H) had been working toward stabilizing its financial situation. Since 2015, it has been introducing initiatives to increase revenue collections through improving billing procedures, negotiating higher insurance rates, attracting and keeping patients, and lowering personnel costs. This report reviews H+H’s position before the pandemic, assesses the financial and operational impacts of its COVID-19 response, and weighs the long-term effects of the pandemic on the system.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the face of education across the country and in New York City, the nation’s largest public school system. During the pandemic, the City had to develop and implement novel remote learning protocols to continue educating students. Extraordinary levels of federal aid allowed the City to overcome these obstacles and implement a number of new initiatives to help students and address learning losses.

The State has made progress in making high-speed connections available to New Yorkers; nevertheless, there are still significant challenges. Many predominantly rural areas remain underserved. And one in three low-income households does not have access to broadband, which magnifies disparities in access to opportunities. High-speed connections are an imperative not only for economic development, but also for equality of opportunity.

New York students with disabilities lost partial or full special education services because of school shutdowns and the shift to remote learning during the pandemic, likely exacerbating pre-existing achievement gaps. School districts should prioritize address learning loss for these students in their re-opening plans.

The historic surge in unemployment claims at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly depleted the New York State Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund, resulting in the State borrowing from the federal government to pay claims. State UI tax rates have already risen to the highest level permissible under law in 2021. Unless the State or federal government takes significant action, federal UI tax rates on employers will also increase in 2022 and beyond.

Local government sales tax collections in August increased by 15.5 percent, or $204 million, over the same month in 2020, making it the fifth month in a row that collections exceeded 2020 results. The double-digit growth in local sales taxes reflects the fact that collections during August of 2020 were fairly weak as sales activity was recovering in certain parts of the state from the early effects of the pandemic. 

Regional Table [.xlsx]

This snapshot highlights the results for counties, cities, towns and villages that reported for local fiscal years ending (FYE) 2020. These scores, therefore, reflect the partial-year impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on operations for most local governments.

The New York State Legislature amended the State Finance Law in 2015 by adding a new Section 8-c, which provides for the establishment of a statewide electronic system to help detect and prevent fraud, waste and abuse in government spending and to help avoid improper payment of public funds.

The Office of the New York State Comptroller conducted a series of five audits designed to examine State agencies’ compliance with EO 95 to improve accountability and support continuous improvement of Open Data, increasing its benefits to the public and government entities.

State Fiscal Year 2020-21 was another productive year for the Office of Unclaimed Funds, returning $400 million to rightful owners.

The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges for the State’s regional transportation authorities by disrupting operations, decreasing ridership, and severely reducing revenues; however, these authorities reported that federal aid helped them weather pandemic deficits. If ridership continues to languish and does not return to pre-pandemic levels, the authorities will need additional revenue from other sources to continue to provide services at current levels—or may be faced with limiting services.