Providing for sound cash management assures that investments are optimized for the best possible return for taxpayers.
Updated January 2021 (Originally Issued January 2016)

To effectively manage your local government’s capital assets, you must develop a long-term plan. The plan should address how you monitor and maintain assets and how much you can spend within your budget.

By developing a structured approach for assessing and funding capital assets, you can help avoid the unexpected, such as sudden road or building closures or cost overruns.

A recurring issue that some of our audits have found within the past few years is that some municipalities do not perform routine bank reconciliations. This technical assistance bulletin is provided to stress the importance of bank reconciliations and provide guidance for successfully completing one.

This bulletin discusses the importance of conducting internal audits of cash collection activities and provides guidance for their successful completion. It is intended primarily for towns and villages, but could be utilized by other local governments.

This 2017 Annual Report on Local Governments provides a summary analysis of the financial state of the local governments outside of New York City for local fiscal years ending in 2016.

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 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 summarizes the services and activities of the Division of Local Government and School Accountability. Our staff members in Albany and in our eight regional offices across the State are committed to promoting taxpayers’ interests by helping improve the fiscal management of New York’s local governments and schools.

While many local governments are in stable financial condition, many are not—particularly upstate urban communities, where population losses and economic decline are eroding their ability to support basic governmental functions. As this report describes, there are very different underlying conditions facing municipalities depending on geography (upstate or downstate) and type of community (city versus suburb).

This annual report highlights major issues facing local governments, building upon the studies and audits from the Division, which are increasingly directed at issues of statewide or regional concern, such as smart growth or the empire zones program.