New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is out with the latest ‘fiscal stress scores’ for municipalities around the state.
This is something he’s done for the last several years, and again Monroe County was among the places mentioned as being under significant fiscal stress.
The monitoring system looks at things like cash-on-hand, short term borrowing and various kinds of trends in a community such as poverty and unemployment.
Although Monroe County was ranked as having significant fiscal stress, Comptroller’s Office spokesman Brian Butry says the county has seen improvements in recent years.
“To their credit however, the most recent scoring that we’ve done, they have reduced their score, it’s the 3rd straight year that they’ve reduced their score, but they’re still not out of danger yet, they’re still in the highest category of significant fiscal stress, but there have been some improvements.”
A spokesman for Monroe County, Jesse Sleezer, released this statement:
"These “fiscal stress” scores are bogus metrics invented by Albany that only tell us what we already know – the State’s pass-the-buck approach to governing places an incredible burden on local governments and taxpayers.
While Albany continues to make it harder for local governments, residents, and businesses to succeed, Monroe County’s credit rating is now all A’s for the first time in a decade, the County Budget ran a $12 million surplus in 2017, and the County property tax rate hasn’t increased a penny in more than ten years.
Instead of adopting Albany’s tax-and-spend ways, Monroe County will remain focused on growing more jobs, building better, flat-tax budgets, and supporting stronger families across our community."
