State: Amityville, Valley Stream ‘susceptible’ to fiscal stress

Fewer Long Island villages than in previous years face acute fiscal stress, but Amityville and Valley Stream are still “susceptible” to the condition, meaning they may not be able to generate enough revenues to meet expenditures.

Those are among the results of an analysis of the finances of 538 villages across New York State released by state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli last week. It is the third year his office has released stress scores that he says are intended to function as an early warning system for officials and residents. Examiners looked at indicators such as deficits, spending, short-term debt and available cash.

“The good news is that the number of villages in fiscal stress has decreased and remains low across much of the state,” DiNapoli said in a news release announcing the ratings.

In 2013, seven Long Island villages made the list, with five judged to face the more severe “moderate” or “significant” levels of stress; in 2014, four villages made the list, with two judged to face those elevated levels. Statewide, DiNapoli’s office found 18 villages faced some level of fiscal stress last year, down from 22 in 2014. Susceptible is the third level, under moderate and significant.

Amityville is the only village in the state to make the list all three years, but officials there are looking at the bright side: for the first two years, DiNapoli’s office warned that fiscal stress there was “significant,” which makes this year at “susceptible” an improvement.

“Never before have I felt so good about being so average,” Mayor James Wandell wrote last week to residents in an email with the subject line “Off Rock Bottom.”

Trustee Nick LaLota, who leads village budgeting, blames slack spending controls and a generous police contract signed under a previous administration for putting the village there in the first place but says the village’s finances are gradually improving. The operating fund pushed into the black this year for the first time since 2008.

Five to 10 years from now, he said, he expects Amityville to place near the top of the state list: “So when a Hurricane Sandy comes, you don’t have to blink, you know you have funds on hand to do immediate repairs.”

In Valley Stream, which made its first appearance on the list, the costs of responding to years of brutal weather and obeying unfunded state mandates helped deplete reserve funds from $10 million in 2008 to $2 million, said treasurer Michael Fox.

For example, the village spent more than $250,000 since 2013 to outfit volunteer firefighters with the required safety harnesses, he said.

A long-term budget plan is in place and village officials have found savings in a leaner payroll and by requiring employees to contribute to their health care, he said.

Six Long Island villages did not submit information to the state, as required by state law; two of them, Babylon Village and Lawrence, have failed to do so for three years running, according to state records.

Officials from Lawrence did not respond to a request for comment.

Babylon Village Mayor Ralph Scordino said village officials are in the process of submitting the materials. Referring to DiNapoli, Scordino said: “I don’t need him to tell me I’m fiscally strained. I’m fiscally strained every time I try to make a budget.”

E.J. McMahon, president of the conservative Empire Center for Public Policy, said the stress reports encourage better financial management but don’t go far enough.

“The available information is still far too limited to give us a solid idea of any locality’s true fiscal condition in the long term,” he wrote in an email.