This report details the Comptroller's, William C. Thompson, Jr.'s, comments on the Fiscal Year 2008 Executive Budget. The City predicts high tax revenue projections and surpluses, giving the City the opportunity to reduce budget gaps for future years.
A surge in fiscal year 2005 revenues is enabling the City to end the current fiscal year with a surplus of $3.3 billion. The fiscal budget for 2006 presented by the Mayor
would use the entire surplus to balance the FY 2006 budget.
A report on the comptroller's comments on the fiscal year 2005 executive budget. The report addresses the successes of the budget as well as its shortcomings. Various recommendations are made regarding more prudent approaches to balancing the budget as well as preserving the need for ongoing investment in the City's infrastructure.
The combination of the recession and the impact of the destruction of the World Trade Center is clearly reflected in the City's financial condition. Over the past 15 months the City has implemented a $4.6 billion in FY 2004 gap-closing actions, including an 18.5 percent property tax increase while borrowing $2 billion to meet operating expenses. However, there was still a FY 2004 deficit of at least $3.8 billion. The Mayor proposed a series of actiosn to close the gap, which include $1.4 billion in new taxes, more than $1.1 billion in State aid above current projections, and $620 million in agency gap-closing initiatives. The State Legislature has approved a state budget and associated initiatives. If enacted into law, it will assist the City in balancing its own budget. The ongoing dispute between the Governor and the State Legislature over the State budget, along with the risks in the Executive Budget could result in another round of cutbacks and layoffs.
This report details the Comptroller's, William C. Thompson, Jr.'s, comments on the Fiscal Year 2007 budget and the financial plan for Fiscal Years 2007-2010. Although the budget is balanced for the year of 2007, there are projected expense increases with the financial plan.
A report containing the comptroller's comments on the adopted budget for fiscal year 2005 and the financial plan for fiscal years 2005-2008. The budget for fiscal year 2005 aims to end the year in balance, and the financial plan for years 2005-2008 aims to minimize the City's deficits while generating more revenue. Included in the report are statistics and information pertinent to the financial planning for the years 2005-2008.
Comments from the Comptroller on the mayor's budget for the Fiscal Year 2004, problems that may occur and are occurring in the City, and solutions on how to solve these problems.
While fiscal year 2002 is certain to end with the budget in balance, fiscal year 2003 is not guaranteed to. The recession and the terrorist attacks left the city in a challenging financial condition. The Comptroller's
analysis reveals that the fiscal year 2003 gap has increased by an additional $1.1 billion, bringing the total deficit to more than $6 billion.
In June 2001, Brooklyn Baseball Company, L.L.C, and the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation
entered into a 20-year lease agreement. This grants the Cyclones the exclusive rights to use KeySpan Park on Surf Avenue
in Brooklyn. This audit determined whether the Cyclones complied with their lease agreement with the City; paid
the appropriate fees to the City and whether they paid them on time. The Cyclones paid the City $1,131,196 in rental
fees and Parks paid the Cyclones $200,000
related to net parking lot income. Audit findings include the significant weakness in the Cyclones internal controls
that prevented the determination of whether actual attendance, no-shows, and recreated area attendees were reported
accurately, and whether all appropriate fees due the City were paid. The Cyclones did not report $98,600 recorded on
their books as rent revenue, therefore owe the City $49,300 in additional fees. The audit recommends to base actual
attendance on their turnstile counts, as required by the lease, along with other recommendations.
The Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) manages the
Department of Finance's system software and hardware. The audit determines that the Department has adequate controls
to protect both its mainframe and network environments. Security matters should be addressed such as the mainframe
environment containing the Department's information protection policies and procedures are not consolidated in one
document. In addition, there is no agency virus response plan.
Amendments to the Rules Relating to the Rebate for Owners of Certain Real Property Seriously Damaged by Hurricane Sandy. In accordance with Chapter 250, Local Law 67 of 2013 added a new
section 11-240 to the New York City Administrative Code to grant a rebate of real property taxes to owners of certain real property seriously damaged by Hurricane Sandy.
This report illustrates that The City of New York completed its fiscal year with a General Fund surplus, as determined by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles for the 33rd consecutive year.
Just days after the events of September 11, 2001, President Bush and Congress promised that $20 billion in federal aid would be provided to help New York City
recover from the attack. Given the unprecedented scale of the destruction-physical, economic, and emotional-no one had real estimates of what the needs
and costs would be. As a result, the federal promise was loosely defined. Assistance was provided for immediate relief but a large portion of the aid was to flow to New York
over time as specific uses of the assistance were determined.