Reports

New York City’s government workforce reached more than 300,000 employees in June of 2024, the first year-over-year increase since the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, some City agencies remain understaffed, resulting in critical services being impacted. The operational complexity in delivering these services highlights the critical need for stakeholders (management and the public) to have access to relevant data to evaluate the performance of a given agency or program.

New York City Health + Hospitals (H+H) spent $168 million more than projected on temporary staff, despite hiring over 1,660 new nurses in city fiscal year 2024. Nurse employment trends have improved since the end of the public health emergency, especially in New York City and particularly at H+H. In order to manage staffing pressures and service demand, H+H must continue to balance hiring of new staff to execute on its strategic and financial plan.

Local sales tax collections in New York State increased by 2.3% in October compared to the same month in 2023. Overall, local collections totaled $1.84 billion for the month, up $41 million year over year.

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Farming in New York plays a critical role, both as an economic engine for communities and as an essential part of our food supply system. This report provides a comprehensive breakdown of farming across upstate New York, Long Island and New York City, including an analysis of State programs and tax benefits for farmers.

The benefits from four major social insurance programs provide crucial financial support during difficult times in the lives of hundreds of thousands New York workers and their families each year. This report analyzes benefits provided for representative workers under unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, temporary disability insurance and paid family leave. 

The Office of the State Comptroller prepares this report as part of the "Quick Start" process established in the State Finance Law. The report includes revenue and spending projections through SFY 2026-27.

Local government sales tax collections in New York State totaled $5.98 billion in the third calendar quarter of 2024, up 1.4 percent (or $82.7 million) compared to the same quarter last year. Statewide local collections this past quarter continued a general trend of declining growth that followed a post-pandemic spike. In fact, the third quarter’s 1.4 percent growth was the lowest quarterly year-over-year increase following the pandemic-induced declines. New York City collections grew by 1.1 percent in the third quarter, while the counties and cities throughout the rest of the State, in aggregate, experienced 1.5 percent growth, year over year. | Regional Table [xlsx]

After a brief period of financial stability secured by an infusion of State funds last year, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) now faces growing fiscal uncertainties and risks that create projected budget gaps. Those gaps could grow much wider if various budget risks that the MTA has identified come to pass. A faster-than-expected return of ridership remains one of the key means for improving the fiscal stability of the system and highlighting the importance of continued investment in the assets of the system.

The State’s employment picture has changed in significant ways since 2000 with the health care and social assistance industry increasing its share of total employment as manufacturing and financial activities shrank. Since the pandemic, the State has taken longer than the nation to regain the jobs lost; the nation fully recovered by June 2022, while for New York, recovery did not occur until April 2024. Despite the relatively slow employment recovery, growth in wages paid to workers has outpaced inflation.

Transportation costs for households in the New York City metropolitan area grew by about 56% between 2012-13 and 2022-23, less than in the Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco metropolitan areas. Transportation made up the second largest cost for New Yorkers, behind housing. It remains critical to maintain MTA service at affordable levels, so that transportation costs remain relatively affordable and offset housing costs, especially for lower- and middle-income households.

Wall Street’s $23.2 billion in pretax profits for the first half of 2024 were a dramatic 79.3% increase over the same period last year and buoyed by securities trading, underwriting, and account supervision. The City's securities industry has the greatest number of jobs in the nation despite a decline this year. The industry also continues to contribute tax revenues at or above pre-pandemic levels, and its contribution should exceed tax forecasts if stronger-than-expected profits hold up.

Chronic absenteeism rates among New York public and charter school students increased sharply as schools transitioned back to in-person learning after the COVID-19 pandemic subsided and remained high with nearly one in three students chronically absent during the 2022-23 school year. The rates were higher for high school students at 34.1%, 7.6 percentage points more than elementary and middle school students.

The Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the State of New York for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024.

The Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the New York State and Local Retirement System (the System or NYSLRS) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024.

Brooklyn’s Coney Island and Brighton Beach have earned global reputations as destinations, but the dramatic rise in jobs over the past decade is less well known. Despite the pandemic, there were 35,203 jobs in Coney Island and Brighton Beach in 2023, a 101% increase from a decade earlier. The area is home to one of the largest populations of individuals 65 and over among neighborhoods citywide, and recent economic growth has been tied to serving this population.

Local sales tax collections in New York State increased by 3.8% in August compared to the same month in 2023. Overall, local collections totaled $1.85 billion for the month, up $68 million year over year.

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The MTA must find billions in new funds even as the State tries to resolve the $15 billion gap in revenue created by the pause on congestion pricing. This report lays out possible sources to fund the MTA’s substantial capital needs and emphasizes areas of capital work expected to receive funding in its next capital program.

Higher education institutions provide tremendous value to New York’s local economies and the State’s overall economic health through employment, wages, student spending, and more. The sector employed over 296,000 people in 2023, paying wages of around $26.5 billion, but still has over 13,000 fewer jobs than in 2019. Maintaining a vibrant higher education system is critical to New York’s future.

The New York State Legislature amended the State Finance Law in 2015 by adding a new Section 8-c providing for the establishment of a statewide electronic system to help detect and prevent fraud, waste and abuse in government spending and to help avoid improper payment of public funds.

In SFY 2022-23 (April 1, 2022 through March 31, 2023), OSC completed 10 audits of preschool special education providers' expenses submitted to SED. These audits cumulatively identified $7.7 million in recommended disallowances, or more than 13 percent of the total claimed expenses of $57.7 million for the audit period.