Reports

In 2021, New York ranked high among states for business creation; however, some business owners may face impediments to creating a new enterprise. While New York exceeds the nation in the share of businesses that are majority female and minority-owned, they continue to represent less than one-quarter of all owners in the State. Entrepreneurship is vital to the economic health of the State, and ensuring equitable access to the capital and tools for business creation are also important for New York’s future.

Local sales tax collections in New York State increased by 1.6% in February compared to the same month in 2023. Overall, local collections totaled $1.67 billion, up $26.8 million from the same time last year.

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New York’s higher education sector is facing challenges, including a looming enrollment cliff, growing costs of attendance, and rising student debt. This report provides critical indicators on the competitiveness of higher education institutions, explains their major challenges, and offers recommendations for consideration. Keeping New York’s higher education institutions competitive by ensuring their affordability, diversity and spirit of innovation and community is important for our State’s future.

The Corporate Governance Program supports and facilitates the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in the Common Retirement Fund’s due diligence process, investment decisions, and performance monitoring program, and provides active stewardship of the Fund’s public equity holdings.

Better-than-projected revenues and planned cost savings benefited New York City’s budget outlook for Fiscal Year 2025, but outyear budget gaps remain large due to the end of federal pandemic aid and a lack of federal funding to support asylum seeker costs. Additional City funding for education and social services programs that support working-class families may be needed if those programs will be maintained at current levels in the future.  

Local sales tax collections in New York State increased by 0.3% in January compared to the same month in 2023. Overall, local collections totaled nearly $1.9 billion, up $4.8 million from the same time last year.

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After the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the State’s finances have stabilized, and the Division of the Budget is now forecasting reduced budget gaps. In addition, the Executive Budget includes a new proposal to severely restrict the State Comptroller’s terms and conditions approval of certain State bond issuances. This critical oversight and approval role protects taxpayers from short-sighted financing decisions that too often burden taxpayers with debt that is risky and costly.

For almost 3 million New Yorkers, housing costs constitute more than 30 percent of household income, with 1 in 5 households experiencing a severe cost burden of more than 50 percent of their income going to pay for housing. This report is the third and final report in the “New Yorkers in Need” series. It examines three categories of housing insecurity: high housing costs; physical inadequacy, including overcrowding and substandard conditions; and housing stress, including evictions and foreclosures, which may result in homelessness.

Local government sales tax collections in New York State totaled $23 billion in calendar year 2023, up 4.2 percent (or nearly $919 million) compared 2022. This past year’s growth lagged compared to both 2021 and 2022, when a combination of rising inflation and a surge in taxable sales statewide led to double-digit growth after significant COVID-related declines in 2020. Despite the slowdown, collections returned to growth rates more consistently seen before the pandemic. New York City’s collections grew by 5.9 percent, year over year, while the counties and cities in the rest of the State, in aggregate, experienced 2.4 percent growth. 

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In October 2023, the MTA issued its latest 20 Year Needs Assessment (TYNA), which provides an unrestrained view of the capital needs of the system. This report from the Comptroller’s office examines the TYNA, reviews the depth of work needed to upgrade New York’s regional transit and highlights the urgent need for the MTA to state its priorities and funding plans as early as it can.

This snapshot highlights the Fiscal Stress Monitoring System (FSMS) results for school districts that reported for school fiscal year (SY) 2022-23, which ended on June 30, 2023. Increases to federal pandemic relief aid and the State fully funding foundation aid kept many districts out of a stress designation. For SY 2022-23, sixteen school districts were designated as being in stress—the second-lowest number since the system was created. The report also includes a look at districts that have been chronically stressed over the eleven years since FSMS began.

New York State has the highest number of personal income tax checkoffs in the nation, but even as the number of checkoffs have grown over the last decade, only a fraction of the money has been actually spent on their target purposes each year. Agencies need to comply with reporting requirements to provide greater clarity on why spending from the funds is lagging.

This annual report summarizes the results of all the State agency and public authority audit reports issued by the Office of the State Comptroller from October 1, 2022 through September 30, 2023.

This listing includes all final audit reports related to State agency and public authority operations issued during the five-year period from October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2022, and is a companion to the 2022–2023 Annual Report on Audits.

New York City housing costs have grown more than 68% over the last decade, the largest increase of selected major metropolitan areas in the U.S. Housing affordability, which considers the incomes of households, has also worsened in New York City over the last decade, as median rent prices, in particular, grew faster than median incomes. Many New Yorkers may continue to be priced out of their preferred neighborhoods without a substantial increase in the supply of affordable housing units for low- and moderate-income households.

A look back at some of the major accomplishments of the Office of the New York State Comptroller in 2023.

Since early 2020, enrollees in New York Medicaid have not had to renew their coverage due to COVID-19 public health emergency. With federal legislation ending continuous Medicaid coverage in March 2023, New York State began the process of redetermining eligibility for every enrolled individual. Based on recent trends, this report estimates “unwinding” may not meet projections in the Division of the Budget’s Mid-Year Update to the Enacted Budget Financial Plan, adding costs to the State budget.

Local sales tax collections in New York State increased by 5.1% in November compared to the same month in 2022. Overall, local collections totaled $1.81 billion, up $88.6 million compared to the same time last year.

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New York City faces spending risks that could increase its budget gaps for Fiscal Years 2025 through 2027 to an average of $12.6 billion annually, fueled by spending choices made during the pandemic, underbudgeting for recurring spending, and significant costs associated with the influx of asylum seekers into the five boroughs. While many of the fiscal challenges facing the City are not in its direct control, preparation and transparency remain paramount to navigating this uncertainty.

Population shifts during and after the COVID-19 pandemic are changing the face of New York City. In the wake of the pandemic, the City’s populace is overall older and wealthier, with a rebounding population of international migrants and declining shares of White and Black New Yorkers. The cost of living also rose as the pandemic subsided, making the City increasingly more expensive for lower income New Yorkers, who left in greater numbers in 2022.