https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/State-audit-finds-village-of-Nassau-has-too-much-12861238.php
State: Nassau sitting on too much cash
Auditors say that surplus should be used to lower taxes
Published 4:00 pm, Tuesday, April 24, 2018
NASSAU – The state Comptroller’s Office has advised the Village Board to consider cutting property taxes to help bring down its budget surpluses created by collecting more money than it spends.
The village budget generated surpluses at the end of 2016-17 fiscal year that amounted to $477,621, or 68.5 percent of the 2017-18 budget of $697,543, state auditors said.
“Formulate a plan for the use of excess unrestricted fund balance in the general fund in a manner that benefits village residents – for example, reducing property taxes when developing the budget, establishing necessary reserves or financing one-time expenditures,” the audit recommends.
It’s the second time this month that a Capital Region municipality has been advised to cut property taxes. A week earlier, the town of Moreau received that recommendation.
The recommendation to lower property taxes has occurred in other communities as a result of audit findings, said Brian Butry, deputy press secretary for Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. In 2017, the state audits of the town of Carlisle in Schoharie County and the village of Candor in Tioga made this suggestion to deal with huge surpluses.
On April 11 the Nassau Village Board cut property taxes for the 2018-19 budget by 2 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. The tax rate fell to $5.05 per $1,000 from the 2017-18 rate of $5.07 per $1,000. The village of 1,133 residents has a recently adopted budget of $751,703 for 2018-19.
While many villages and cities have struggled with finding money to balance their budgets, Nassau has so much money it doesn’t even spend the surplus it does budget for the general fund, according to the audit released Friday.
“While the adopted general fund budgets included reasonable revenue estimates, appropriations significantly exceeded expenditures,” the audit stated.
Village response
Mayor Robert W. Valenty said in his response:
“Beginning with the 2018-19 budget we will adopt a more accurate budget that includes realistic estimates for expenditures and the amount of fund balance to be available and used to fund operations.”
The village will use its reserves to pay for planned capital projects over the next few years; will reduce the fund balance in the water fund by paying off existing debt; and will find a corrective action plan, he wrote.
“The implementation of these recommendations will give the board the opportunity to positively improve our budgeting process, and provide more efficient services to our residents,” Valenty wrote.
