County Government

The House of Representatives Meddling in NYS Internal Fiscals

March 22, 2017 Budget

I’m analyzing NYS options if the AHCA becomes law including the amendment pushed by Congressmen Collins and Faso. I’ll post that later today. For some context and history, it will be useful to read this post from five years ago. Note that the number in the earlier post is $8 billion while the estimated effect […]

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More on Variability in Change in Sales Tax Receipts for NYS Counties

December 22, 2014 County

Here’s more detail regarding the last post. It shows percent change in sales tax receipts from NYS Tax and Finance, rank ordered by percent change from SFY 2003 to 2014.

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“Prioritizing” Federal Payments?

October 16, 2013 Cash

During the depth of the recent Great Recession, senior Budget and Finance staff would gather in my office once a week to decide which vendors our county would pay that week and which would not. We knew our cash position and which checks had been printed and held. While we had some idea of expected […]

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Some Final Numbers on the Albany County Nursing Home

March 23, 2013 Accounting

We’re in the end game regarding the Albany County Nursing Home (ACNH). As I’ll lay out in another post shortly, when the key numbers are votes … But in this post, we’ll dispense with some bogus, and seriously misleading, numbers that advocates of keeping the Nursing Home open have been throwing around the last month […]

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Two New York Counties Proceed With Unburdening Themselves of Nursing Homes

March 22, 2013 County Government

Yesterday, the Committee that reviews certificate-of-need applications for the NYS Public Health and Health Planning Council approved the applications that would move two county nursing homes to private ownership. Alice Hyde Hospital, in Malone will be building a new larger nursing home combining their current capacity with that of the Franklin County Nursing Home, which […]

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Quick Count of New York’s Muni’s in Fiscal Distress

February 5, 2013 Cities

Based on the Governor’s tentative list, I just did a quick count of New York’s municipalities listed as being fiscally distressed and those not. Fiscally distressed: 437 Not fiscally distressed: 1,169 No data in the file (which I’ll check): 2 Total: 1,606 Percentage fiscally distressed: 27.2% Note, there are no school districts in this list. […]

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More Measures of Muni Fiscal Stress

February 5, 2013 County Government

Yesterday, the Budget Division of New York’s Governor, Andrew Cuomo, released a list of municipalities indicating at least one form of fiscal distress. While the list and measures are preliminary (for information only), they are evidently precursors of more definitive measures that would enable municipal governments to benefit from capped binding arbitration decisions in labor […]

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The Albany Times-Union is Correct

December 4, 2012 Audit

In an editorial today, Mr. Conners’ outrageous idea, the Times-Union pointedly says that the County Comptroller should not be given subpoena power. They are correct. Very. Much of the TU’s reasoning is based on Conners’ release of personal information earlier this year, which included Social Security Numbers. After that debacle, I wrote, Conners Knew His […]

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NY Counties Sharing Sales Tax Revenue With Cities & Towns

December 3, 2012 Cities

There’s a little Albany debate going on on Twitter right now about which counties share more of their sales tax revenue with local cities, towns and villages. It’s part of the lead in to what’s likely to be a contentious meeting of the Albany County Legislature. Simultaneously, a couple members of the City of Albany’s […]

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Keeping Watch for Local Government Fiscal Stress

December 2, 2012 Accounting

New York’s Comptroller, Tom DiNapoli has issued a draft proposal for identifying local governments at risk of fiscal stress. An earlier report touches on local fiscal distress. And here, former Assemblyman Richard Brodsky discusses the earlier Comptroller’s report. It’s a good idea, and given the local governments that have already gotten themselves in trouble the […]

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