This report examines the ways that funding received by local governments – from federal stimulus programs – as well as volatile annual state and local revenue sources – can impact local budgeting. The temporary nature of the federal stimulus funds in combination with state aid that has not kept pace with inflation, sales tax growth that has returned to lower pre-pandemic levels, and flat property tax revenue growth can put local governments closer to the edge of the fiscal cliff if not carefully managed.

The City of Corning, located in Steuben County in the Southern Tier, is an economic and cultural center for the region. Despite a substantial decline in population since 1950, Corning is doing well by many fiscal measures. The City has also been successful in forming partnerships with local stakeholders to enhance economic development to serve visitors and residents.

This report focuses on the condition of local bridges using data from the Federal Highway Administration’s National Bridge Inventory. New York has made progress in recent years. Since 2017, the share of local bridges in poor condition has fallen from 12.1 percent to 10.0 percent. The federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) has directed federal funds to a variety of infrastructure projects, including bridge projects. The IIJA created the Bridge Formula Program, which provides $2.0 billion in federal funding for New York bridges from federal fiscal years 2022-2026.

As officials responding to an audit, you will be asked to prepare two documents at the end of the audit process – a written audit response to our draft audit report and a corrective action plan (CAP) in response to the final audit report. These are two different documents with different purposes.  This brochure contains additional information and guidelines about the written audit response and the CAP and the differences between these two documents. Access the PDF document here.

This report examines the local government role in emergency medical services (EMS) in New York State and particularly the growing role that counties are playing in EMS provision. Declining staffing levels, increasing costs and other challenges have put pressure on the State’s EMS agencies. In many cases, counties are stepping up to help. Their EMS expenditures are growing rapidly and increasingly they are participating directly in providing EMS to their residents, either as primary responders or as back-up providers to their local EMS agencies.

The number of full-time local government workers employed outside of New York City contracted by 7.9% from 2007 to 2022, largely the result of two defining events – the recession of 2007-09 and the COVID-19 pandemic. This stands in contrast to the nation as a whole, which saw a 2% increase in the number of full-time local government employees over the same 15-year period. This snapshot report highlights these findings and provides additional analysis by local government class, job function and geographic region.

A sample of 95 local governments across New York State reported $1.34 billion in actual and anticipated spending on capital projects over a 10-year period, with about $737 million (55% of the total) in response to climate-related hazards such as increased flooding and storm damage.

The Comptroller's Division of Local Government and School Accountability provides essential support to these officials to keep operations and services running smoothly for New Yorkers. If you’re a new local government official, complete the five tasks in this guide to get started in your new role.

This report highlights the results of the 2020 Census for local governments in New York State and accompanies a new online interactive map that provides census population statistics by age, race and ethnicity, along with housing trends, for each city, county, town and village statewide. | Interactive Census Dashboard

Participation in school district budget votes has been relatively low, particularly since the implementation of the tax cap. In response to the pandemic, school districts in New York State were required to provide all residents with an absentee ballot for the 2020-21 school budget vote. This new process likely contributed to an increase in participation: triple the number of votes were cast compared to the prior year.