The Mohawk Valley Region’s dominant economic center is the Utica-Rome metropolitan area. Unemployment and child poverty rates are higher in the Region than for the State as a whole, while household income is below the State median. While the Region has lost industries and employers over the past couple of decades, there has recently been a modest increase in new manufacturing jobs. Also, the City of Utica has harnessed its surplus of affordable housing by reaching out to refugees to come and establish families and businesses in the area.

Local sales tax collections in New York State for the first half of 2018 were $8.5 billion, a 6.0 percent increase over the same period last year. This was the highest half-year increase since 2010, growing in every region of the State compared to the first half of 2017. Factors that may have influenced this include the lowest unemployment rate in over a decade, steady wage growth in the first half of 2018 and high consumer confidence.

This guide is intended to help local governments create an effective multiyear planning process that helps identify and manage potential fiscal difficulties before crises emerge.

This Annual Report seeks to highlight some of the year’s important policy developments and trends for local governments.

The 2015 Annual Report on New York State’s local governments describes the revenue and expenditure trends affecting our counties, cities, towns, villages and school districts, and highlights some of the work the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) is doing in the areas of policy research, auditing and training.

This report provides you with a summary of trends in local government revenues and spending. It also offers the opportunity to reflect upon major local policy developments that occurred in 2014, as well as to highlight the important work that we have done and will continue to do here at the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC).

This 2013 Annual Report on Local Governments highlights the difficult fiscal environment under which local officials are expected to fulfill their obligations to the people they serve, and outlines the steps OSC is taking to assist in these efforts.

This report highlights the many services that are available to local officials through our Division of Local Government and School Accountability, including audits, training and research.

This report highlights the new fiscal realities facing local governments and school districts as they work to comply with the new property tax cap while grappling with the lingering effects of the recent recession. In addition, the report addresses recent audits and summarizes many of the services and activities provided by our Division of Local Government and School Accountability.

This report highlights some of the challenges facing New York’s local governments and school districts, and summarizes many of the services and activities provided by our Division of Local Government and School Accountability.