NEW HEMPSTEAD - The New York State Comptroller assigned this Ramapo village the highest ranking for significant fiscal stress among all municipalities in the state.
New Hempstead, about three square miles and home to some 5,500 residents, carried the highest score of the six municipalities revealed by the comptroller on Sept. 24 as under significant fiscal stress.
The ranking, 86.7, is based on on data sent from annual financial reports submitted by local governments to State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's office.
A total of 22 local governments in New York state were designated by the Comptroller's Office as in fiscal stress, based on data from the fiscal year ending in 2025.
New Hempstead Mayor Abe Sicker on Sept. 30 declined to comment to USA TODAY
Network.
What comptroller found in New Hempstead
According to data from the Comptroller's Office, the village's 2025 total fund balance was negative $445,502.
"Fund balance is essentially savings for the unexpected rainy day problems that occur," Ed Burgess, director of municipal audits in the state Comptroller's Office, told USA TODAY Network. "(It's) like personal savings. What you have that you don't owe on."
New Hempstead, though, "exhausted all of fund balance," Burgess said. "That's what negative ($445,502) is."
The data also showed that the village's short-term cash-flow debt at the end of 2025 was $545,000, meaning that revenue was due to the village later.
Burgess said the village may be expected revenue of some sort, often from state aid or taxes. "But they can't recognize the revenue until they receive it."
Burgess said the numbers point to a misalignment between recurring revenues and expenditures. "Fund balance is a finite resource."
The village's 2025 appropriations budget was $2,777,702. In one possible sign of village action, the appropriations budget was lowered in 2026, to $2,420,205, according to village documents.
For Mid-Hudson villages, the total fund balance is usually 60% of the General Fund, data from the comptroller shows. New Hempstead's total fund balance was -13.4% of its General Fund.
The Office of the State Comptroller performs audits on all local governments. The last audit of New Hempstead was in January 2019.
When asked if the significant risk rating would be considered in deciding when the village would undergo another audit, Burgess said the regional office makes those decisions, but "it's certainly a factor."
Signals of overriding property tax levy cap?
Burgess said the village had not provided data for the fiscal stress monitoring score (FSMS) since 2021. Maybe if the village had filed the information in previous years, Burgess said, the comptroller's office could have seen issues earlier.
Meanwhile, during the Sept. 23 New Hempstead Village Board meeting, trustees set a Nov. 16 public hearing for its 2027 budget plan that became clear would likely override the state-mandated property tax cap.
"We're going to need a supermajority," Sicker said during the meeting when he discussed setting a hearing date, "because of the taxes."
In August, the Comptroller's Office reported that an increasing number of local governments were signaling plans to override the state's property tax levy cap.
DiNapoli in a statement concurred that there are signs of mounting fiscal pressure on local governments "due to a combination of the end of federal pandemic aid, higher inflation, rising operating costs and moderating sales tax revenue growth."
“Local officials should be pragmatic when planning future budgets," DiNapoli said, "and I encourage them to use the FSMS information and tools we provide to help them make prudent financial decisions.”
Fiscal Stress Monitoring System: Where municipalities land
The Comptroller's Office has for the past 13 years gauged all New York governments with a Fiscal Stress Monitoring System. In total, 22 local governments were ranked at various levels of fiscal risk based on municipalities' financial shape at the end of Fiscal Year 2025.
DiNapoli releases fiscal stress scores for government entities, excluding New York City, three times a year.
In this latest round, six were ranked as at significant risk, including New Hempstead. The others are: the town of Kent in Putnam County; the city of Albany; Dunkirk in Chautauqua County; Little Falls in Herkimer County; and Island Park in Nassau County.
Five municipalities were designated as being in "moderate fiscal stress," They are: The city of Poughkeepsie in Dutchess County; the town of Minden in Montgomery County; the town of North Greenbush in Rensselaer County; and the town of Ramapo in Rockland.
Those at “susceptible to fiscal stress" included: the city of Elmira in Chemung County; the city of Glen Cove in Nassau County; the city of Johnstown Fulton County; the city of Schenectady; the town of Cortlandville in Cortland County; and La Grange in Dutchess County.
Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy for lohud.com and the USA Today Network New York. Reach her at ncutler@lohud.com; follow her on Twitter, Threads and Instagram at @nancyrockland.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: This Rockland village ranks highest for 'significant fiscal stress'
