New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced the audits and reports listed below were issued were issued during the week ending May 26, 2023
Click on the text highlighted in color to access the full report.
Town of Preble – Non-Payroll Disbursements (Cortland County) The board and supervisor did not provide adequate oversight of non-payroll disbursements. As a result, there is an increased risk that errors or irregularities could occur and remain undetected and uncorrected. Specifically, town officials did not segregate the bookkeeper’s duties or implement critical controls. In addition, the board could improve its annual audit of the supervisor’s records and reports.
Town of Greig – Long-Term Planning (Lewis County) The board did not establish long-term financial and capital plans or fund balance and reserve policies. Therefore, the board lacks important tools to project current and future operating and capital needs and has not outlined its intentions for financing future capital improvements or equipment purchases. Auditors reviewed the town’s capital assets and found that 15 of the 27 pieces of major highway equipment were beyond their optimal useful life and some of the equipment had observable damage. A lack of properly functioning highway equipment contributed to the town being unable to use more than $73,000 of available state funding as of the end of 2021.
Village of Sidney – Financial Activities (Delaware County) The board and clerk-treasurer did not properly monitor selected financial activities. As a result, total general fund balance for fiscal year-end 2021-22 was overstated by $571,719, the transparency of village financial operations was compromised, and taxpayers were not assured the board was effectively monitoring airport operations and financial condition. For the past five years, the total airport operating deficits exceeded $293,000. In addition, delinquent taxes totaling $575,182 date back to fiscal year 2011-12 and officials cannot identify which taxpayers owe $60,452 of that total. General fund assets were also overstated by $288,510 and liabilities by $434,929 in fiscal year 2021-22. Lastly, two capital project funds and three community development funds have negative fund balances that may require a transfer from the general fund to pay remaining liabilities. About $700,000 of the village’s $1 million fund balance may be needed to satisfy the liabilities.
City of Yonkers – Budget Review (Westchester County) Some revenue and expenditure projections in the proposed budget are unreasonable. Furthermore, officials’ continued practice of using debt to pay for recurring costs is imprudent. The review found the city’s proposed budget continues to rely on $112.3 million in nonrecurring revenue, such as appropriated fund balance, one-time state funding and the sale of property to finance its operations. In addition, the budget includes revenue estimates for income tax surcharge, sales and use tax as well as city and state mortgage tax that may not be achievable. The budget also includes $8.5 million for contractual settlements; five of the city’s eight union collective bargaining agreements have expired or will expire soon and the city could face additional expenditures when these contracts are settled.
N.B. The city’s proposed budget also includes the Yonkers Public School District’s budget. The review found the district’s proposed budget is structurally unbalanced with a budget gap of at least $33 million and overestimates state funding for basic aid by approximately $1.2 million. The budget also relies on $12 million of additional state aid for services and expenditures which may not be available in future years and does not include a specific appropriation for contractual settlements.
New York State Throughway Authority
Audit
New York State Thruway Authority: Selected Aspects of Toll
Collections
Related Report
Assessment
of NYS Thruway Authority Finances and Proposed Toll
Increases
"The state’s Thruway Authority has to do a better job of identifying, billing, and collecting tolls and related fees, including $276.3 million it has a collection agency seeking as of March 2023", according to a new audit from State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.
"This audit has identified ways in which the Thruway can improve its collection of tolls and fees,” DiNapoli said. “Based on the Authority’s response, I’m hopeful action will be taken to implement our recommendations to maximize revenue for the Thruway.”
Tolls and related fees make up more than 90% of the Thruway’s revenue. Ninety percent of toll revenues are from users of E-ZPass with the rest through Tolls by Mail. In 2021, the Thruway collected $804 million from tolls and related fees. Nearly half (43%) of the unpaid tolls and related fees, $119.3 million, is owed by out-of-state drivers. A substantial portion of that money is from vehicles registered in New Jersey ($34.2 million) and Connecticut ($16.7 million).
Vehicle owners get a warning if their E-ZPass account has a negative balance for over 30 days. If no payment is made in the next 30 days, the account is canceled and a $25 fee is charged. If the E-ZPass device isn’t returned another $16 fee is added. Tolls by Mail that aren’t paid in 30 days trigger a warning notice and a $5 fine. If it’s still not paid 30 days later, it is in violation and a $50 fee is added to the invoice. Thirty days after the violation notice, the Thruway can send it to a collection agency.
Lapse in Collections
During the
audit period, the Thruway used two collection agencies. When the
first vendor’s contract expired Sept. 15, 2020, it returned the
uncollected accounts totaling $430 million to the Thruway. This
included $14 million in negative balances and $416 million in tolls
and related fees.
The second collection agency’s contract took effect January 2021, but the Thruway did not send it any accounts to collect until July, more than nine months after the last contract had expired. Thruway officials said the new vendor needed time to reprogram its system to incorporate revisions in toll violations and that, while there was no collection agency during this time, it continued to collect overdue payment through its in-house customer service employees.
Registration Suspension
Program
The Thruway can ask the Department of Motor
Vehicles (DMV) to suspend the registration of any in-state
passenger vehicles that do not pay tolls, fees, or other charges,
if they have three or more violations in five years, and for
commercial vehicles, if they owe $200 or more over five years. The
Authority has a reciprocity agreement with Massachusetts — it’s
only such agreement — to request registration suspensions
there.
The Thruway halted the suspension program in January 2018 as cashless tolling was being introduced following negative press and public concerns related to system problems including erroneous billings and excessive fees It resumed the program four-and-a-half years later in July 2022, but has made very limited use of it. Separate from the accounts with the Thruway’s collection agency, auditors found 257,917 past due accounts, owing $288.4 million, that were eligible for suspension.
Of these, 49,740 customers were persistent violators that had outstanding balances every year going back to 2017. Since restarting the program, however, the Thruway has referred 60 or fewer plates per week for suspension and had just two employees assigned to the program.
Rejected License Plate
Images
Auditors also found fault with the
Thruway’s identification of license plates from the images it
takes. The audit sampled 161 images that were rejected and found
11% were identifiable and billable. Auditors also estimated the
Thruway missed out on billing an additional $7.2 million in tolls
last year based on the number of license plate images that were
rejected for reasons, such as being too dark or too bright, that
were within the Thruway’s ability to fix.
DiNapoli made several recommendations to the Thruway for improving its identifying, billing and collecting tolls and related revenue to the Thruway, including that it:
- Ensure that there is a smooth transition in any change of collection vendors to avoid gaps in service.
- Establish procedures for dismissing violation fees, including the selection criteria that explain why they are being dismissed and the basis for the amounts.
- Review accounts that are eligible to have their vehicle registration suspended to determine where collection efforts will have the best results, and assess the feasibility of entering into registration suspension agreements with more states in addition to Massachusetts.
- Revise the methodology for selecting accounts to refer to DMV for suspension to target persistent violators and accounts nearing the 6-year statute of limitations.
- Ensure that all images rejected by the automated process that are identifiable manually are billed.
- Monitor trends in the incidences of rejected images and take appropriate corrective actions.
The Comptroller’s Office has another audit of the Thruway Authority’s cashless tolling program that is currently in progress, related to billing accuracy and the Authority’s Office of the Toll Payer Advocate’s handling of consumer complaints.
The Authority agreed with three of the audit’s 11 recommendations. It did not state whether it agreed or disagreed with the others, but indicated an understanding in principle. Its full response is available in the audit.
Audit
New York State Thruway Authority: Selected Aspects of Toll
Collections
Related Report
Assessment
of NYS Thruway Authority Finances and Proposed Toll
Increases