Audit Objective
Did the Town of Guilderland (Town) officials properly budget for and allocate sales tax revenue?
Audit Period
January 1, 2020 – March 31, 2025
Understanding the Audit Area
Counties are authorized to share some of their sales and use tax collections with certain local governments. The Town’s financial activities affect different tax bases because a village is located within the Town. As a result, it is important for Town officials to accurately budget for and allocate sales tax revenue to maintain equity among taxpayers.
During the audit period, the County distributed nearly $74.3 million in sales tax revenue to the Town.
Audit Summary
Town officials did not properly budget for and allocate sales tax revenue totaling $14.8 million, during the audit period. While town taxpayers who lived outside the village did not receive all the benefits they should have from the County sales tax distributions, taxpayers with real property located within the Village received an extra benefit from the County sales tax distributions. As a result, taxpayer inequities occurred. See Appendix B for the Town and Village boundary map.
The report includes two recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Town’s process in properly budgeting for and allocating sales tax revenue. Except as specified in Appendix C, Town officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they planned to take corrective action. Appendix D includes our comments on issues raised in the Town’s response letter.
We conducted this audit pursuant to Article V, Section 1 of the State Constitution and New York Office of the State Comptroller’s (OSC) authority as set forth in Article 3 of the New York State General Municipal Law (GML). Our methodology and standards are included in Appendix E.
The Board has the responsibility to initiate corrective action. A written corrective action plan (CAP) that addresses the findings and recommendations in this report should be prepared and provided to our office within 90 days, pursuant to Section 35 of the GML. For more information on preparing and filing your CAP, please refer to our brochure, Responding to an OSC Audit Report, which you received with the draft audit report. We encourage the Board to make the CAP available for public review in the Town Clerk’s office.