Audit Objective
Did the Village of Weedsport (Village) Board of Trustees (Board) effectively manage fund balance?
Audit Period
March 1, 2022 – June 6, 2025
Understanding the Audit Area
A village’s fund balance, the difference between revenues and expenditures accumulated over time, is a key measure of a village’s financial condition. Fund balance should be effectively managed to ensure financial stability, maintain essential services and be transparent with taxpayers. Effective management helps protect a village from unforeseen financial risks, helps maintain a favorable credit rating, and enables long-term financial planning. The Board is responsible for managing the Village’s fund balance, which includes general management and control of the Village’s financial affairs.
As of February 28, 2025, the Village’s 15 reserve funds, which provide a mechanism for legally saving money for future needs, and unrestricted fund balances totaled $3.1 million.
Audit Summary
The Board did not effectively manage the Village’s fund balance. As a result, the Board was not transparent with taxpayers and residents and levied more real property taxes than necessary to fund operations. The Board also maintained unrestricted fund balance in the general and sewer funds totaling $696,548 (44 percent of the upcoming year’s budget) and $336,015 (94 percent of the upcoming year’s budget), respectively, at the end of the 2024-25 fiscal year. This unrestricted fund balance was sufficient to fund the upcoming fiscal year’s budget appropriations for the general fund by almost half and for the sewer fund almost in full.
Additionally, the Board maintained insufficient unrestricted fund balance in the water fund to finance operations and appropriated more fund balance than available in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 fiscal year budgets. The Board also did not adopt an adequate written fund balance policy or develop and adopt comprehensive, written, multiyear financial or capital plans, or a reserve policy. Adequate fund balance and reserve policies and written multiyear plans would have assisted the Board and Village officials in developing and adopting realistic budgets and planning for the Village’s financial future. Furthermore, the Board and Village officials were unable to demonstrate whether all reserve funding was reasonable or would be sufficient for future needs.
Without an updated written fund balance policy, balanced budgets, and multiyear financial and capital plans, it is difficult for the Board to properly manage the Village’s fund balance. As a result, the Board cannot ensure it is raising only the necessary real property taxes and is financing future water and sewer needs without significantly overburdening customers.
The report includes eight recommendations that, if implemented, will improve the Village’s financial management. Village officials generally agreed with our recommendations, and their response is included in Appendix B. Appendix C includes our comment on the Village’s response.
We conducted this audit pursuant to Article V, Section 1 of the State Constitution and the Office of the New York 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 D.
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 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 Village Clerk’s office.