As previous reports by the Office of the State Comptroller have pointed out, the terms city, town and village have more to do with history than they do with presentday governmental function.2 This report looks at urban villages as one type of municipal government that has been impacted by these historic designations.

As New York State struggles to meet the challenges of its current fiscal crisis, State policy makers must find ways to encourage growth in various sectors of the State’s economy to ensure the long-term fiscal health of the State. Small businesses – including those owned by minorities and women – are a vital part of that economy.

This report examines some of the various options proposed to reduce local property tax growth.

This research brief summarizes issues associated with the property tax, provides an overview of recent trends and analyzes the tax burden across regions and types of local government.

The Office of the State Comptroller administers the Justice Court Fund (JCF), a sole custody fund established in 1944 into which the revenues generated by the State’s 1,246 town and village justice courts are deposited.

This report provides an overview of financial and employment trends of the 116 active Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) in New York State.

The “Big Five” cities of New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers either are, or have recently been, fiscally distressed. This affects their dependent school systems, which already face significant challenges associated with the socio-economic composition of their students and the age of their facilities.

The meltdown of the national housing market continues to threaten homeowners with foreclosures and reduced home values. Fortunately, New York had fewer subprime mortgages and has fared better than many other states.1 Nonetheless, the decline in home sales and home values is being felt, particularly downstate.

The number of school districts overriding the tax cap has declined each year. In general, school districts’ decisions to override the tax cap were based, at least in part, on necessity. When examining the relationship between fiscal stress and tax cap overrides, we found that fiscally stressed school districts were nearly three times more likely to override the tax cap when compared to school districts that were not designated as stressed.

Between a tax levy limit that restricts local funding, State and federal aid cuts and a lack of other sources of funding, schools are facing fiscal challenges that are not likely to dissipate in the short term.