POUGHKEEPSIE – The property
tax rate rose by 16.5 percent in Poughkeepsie for 2017, but it did not
include an additional $825,000 that was levied for uncollected taxes and
a reduction in the general fund deficit. That finding came from an audit
of the spending plan conducted by the state comptroller’s office
at the request of Mayor Robert Rolison.
The study also found appropriations for health insurance, the New York State Employees’ Retirement System payments, and debt service payments, are much higher than required. In total, they amount to nearly $2.4 million in over-budgeted amounts. The budget appropriations also include $1.6 million in unsupported allocations to other city departments for overhead.
The state auditors recommended that city officials should avoid budgeting one-time revenues as a source of income to finance recurring expenditures and that they should not include appropriations for overhead services to other city departments without adequate documentation that the allocations are appropriate.
Mayor Rolison said the findings of the audit were received by the city on Thursday and he wants to review them with the city’s finance officials before commenting on them.
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