This report provides a number of ideas and explains efforts undertaken by various municipal officials or identified through audits conducted by OSC that are applicable to most local governments, and that address costs that are under local control.
Shared services can help municipalities increase effectiveness and efficiency in their operation. As municipal responsibilities become increasingly complex and demanding, municipalities should explore shared services and other cooperative opportunities as a way to reduce or avoid costs, improve service delivery, or maintain services.
This guide describes the types of reserve funds that local governments and school districts can establish and maintain. In general, reserve funds have specific intended purposes and requirements as set forth in law. This guide contains a summary of the many different types of reserve funds authorized by New York State statutes.
This guide is designed to assist local governments and school districts contain certain personal service costs. It is broken down into the following sections: • Containing Health Insurance Costs • Minimizing Unemployment Insurance Costs • Managing Workers’ Compensation Costs • Overtime Planning and Management
Providing for sound cash management assures that investments are optimized for the best possible return for taxpayers.
Updated January 2021 (Originally Issued January 2016)
To effectively manage your local government’s capital assets, you must develop a long-term plan. The plan should address how you monitor and maintain assets and how much you can spend within your budget.
By developing a structured approach for assessing and funding capital assets, you can help avoid the unexpected, such as sudden road or building closures or cost overruns.
A recurring issue that some of our audits have found within the past few years is that some municipalities do not perform routine bank reconciliations. This technical assistance bulletin is provided to stress the importance of bank reconciliations and provide guidance for successfully completing one.
This bulletin discusses the importance of conducting internal audits of cash collection activities and provides guidance for their successful completion. It is intended primarily for towns and villages, but could be utilized by other local governments.
This 2017 Annual Report on Local Governments provides a summary analysis of the financial state of the local governments outside of New York City for local fiscal years ending in 2016.
The 2015 Annual Report on New York State’s local governments describes the revenue and expenditure trends affecting our counties, cities, towns, villages and school districts, and highlights some of the work the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) is doing in the areas of policy research, auditing and training.
