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Potsdam trustees will seek comptroller's help to get village finances on track

Posted 9/20/16

By CRAIG FREILICH POTSDAM – The village Board of Trustees will take up an offer by the state Comptroller’s Office to help get the village’s finances on track. “A comprehensive review was done …

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Potsdam trustees will seek comptroller's help to get village finances on track

Posted

By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM – The village Board of Trustees will take up an offer by the state Comptroller’s Office to help get the village’s finances on track.

“A comprehensive review was done by the New York State Restructuring Board because the Village of Potsdam is fiscally eligible for a review,” said Trustee Eleanor Hopke.

The Financial Restructuring Board for Local Governments, part of the Comptroller’s Office, is a 10-member panel available year round to offer assistance to eligible municipalities.

“We’re asking them to come in and help us,” Hopke said. And there is no question of eligibility, as “we are the most fiscally stressed village in the state.”

Hopke was referring to the outcome of the latest of the comptroller’s annual review of the fiscal status of municipalities in the state.

In the report issued in February, Potsdam was at the top of the list of fiscally stressed municipalities, having jumped by their scoring method from 38.3 in 2014 and 51.3 in 2015 to 78.8 in this year’s review, based largely on the lack of a sufficient fund balance and “relative expenditures.”

Hopke, deputy mayor of the village, said at the time that the board “has underestimated expenditures and overestimated revenues.”

The comptroller said in the report that local officials “must remain vigilant when it comes to both short- and long-term budgeting. By putting together sensible multi-year financial plans, the vast majority of our villages can remain financially stable and others can start to improve their fiscal health.”

The village board responded by working to develop a multi-year financial plan, and since the state’s accountants are offering to help, they will be glad for it.

“The comptroller has this available to us, so we’re taking advantage of it,” Hopke said after Monday night’s board meeting.

“They’ll be looking at the ways we’re doing things and we’ll get some advice in getting us out of the condition we’re in, and help us do things more efficiently, whether it’s shared services or whatever to improve and stabilize our condition,” she said.

The board will have to pass a resolution officially accepting the offer, and the mayor will write a letter “telling them he’s in favor of it, and hopefully they’ll come and work with us,” Hopke said.

Our story about the February report can be seen here.

http://northcountrynow.com/news/potsdam-most-fiscally-stressed-village-nys-comptrollers-report-says-0164867