MONTICELLO, NY — The New York State Comptroller’s Office has designated Sullivan County free of fiscal stress, and the fiscal stress score is the best the county has had since reporting began in 2019.

‘No designation’ is the best designation

Based on the annual financial reports submitted to the comptroller’s office, and reflected in the 2022 Fiscal Stress rankings, Sullivan County scored better than ever, once again earning the best rank of “No Designation” (meaning there are no indications of the county being susceptible to fiscal stress at this time).

Municipalities receive a fiscal score and an environmental score. Based on the fiscal score, the system assigns a municipality to one of three categories of stress or to the “no designation” category if its score doesn’t meet the threshold of stress. (The three categories of stress are significant fiscal stress, moderate fiscal stress and susceptible to fiscal stress.)

“This latest report reaffirms that we continue to maintain county government’s fiscal stability,” Sullivan County Manager Josh Potosek said. “And for the third year in a row, we also received ‘no designation’ for environmental stress, meaning prospects are excellent for the county continuing that stability.”

A significant improvement in rank

In 2019, Sullivan earned a fiscal stress score of 42.1 points. That improved to 35.8 in 2020 (a lower score indicating better finances), then to 13.3 in 2021 and now dropping to a best-ever 3.3 points.

Meanwhile, the environmental stress score dropped from 30 in 2019 to 23.3 points in 2020, then 20 for 2021, and now stands at its own best-ever of 13.3 points. Unlike fiscal stress, the data used to create the environmental stress score—population changes, poverty levels, tax base, unemployment rates, state/federal aid and other items—represents issues that are not fully within the county’s control.

“Sullivan County was among the top fiscal performers in all of New York State in 2022,” said county treasurer Nancy Buck. “We nearly had a perfect score of 0 for fiscal stress—the only reason [we didn’t] being that we had minor deficit in our 2020 budget and none since. Everything else—how we managed our fund balance and cash flow, the state of our cash ratios, our complete lack of short-term debt, and rising revenues—put us in the top percentile statewide.”

To access the comptroller’s reports for the county and other municipalities and school districts, visit www.osc.state.ny.us/localgov/fiscalmonitoring/index.htm.

Dan Hust serves as Sullivan County Communications Director.