POTSDAM -- The Village of Potsdam is one of 15 villages statewide to have been placed in a “fiscal stress” category after a survey by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

Village Trustee Eleanor Hopke said “Village finances are not in a good condition,” in a letter to the editor on another matter.

The “susceptible to fiscal stress” category, where Potsdam is ranked, is the least troublesome after two others, “significant stress,” with three villages listed, and “moderate stress,” with four villages so categorized.

The “stress” measurement is intended to indicate practices by municipalities that could lead to serious budget trouble.

Potsdam, the only North Country village on the list, has a score of 51.3 percent of a total possible 100 points. Amityville, on Long Island, has a score of 72.5 percent, the worst among villages listed in the current report, which evaluated and scored 539 villages,

Using financial indicators that include year-end fund balance, short-term borrowing and patterns of operating deficits, the monitoring system creates an overall fiscal stress score which classifies whether a municipality is in “significant fiscal stress,” in “moderate fiscal stress,” is “susceptible to fiscal stress” or has “no designation.”

Fiscally stressed villages also share a number of other themes, including declining property values, above average child poverty rates and an aging population, the comptroller’s report said.

“The NYS Comptroller has placed us on the ‘susceptible to fiscal stress’ list because we continue to spend down our fund balances,” Hopke wrote in her letter. “We have passed a Working Capital and Fund Balance policy to guide us back onto better footing. We have had to borrow from ourselves for unbudgeted repairs at the old hydro plant. We have had to postpone some necessary fire equipment purchases in order to make unbudgeted repairs of more critical fire equipment,” Hopke said.

“These unplanned expenditures need to be repaid from future budgets, and these may well not be our last issues to need remedies,” she said.

“Although the number of fiscally stressed villages is small, these communities still grapple with the same financial pressures as our larger municipalities,” said DiNapoli. “By continuing to focus on sensible budgeting and long-term planning, local village officials can avoid fiscal jeopardy.”