Comptroller flags tight fund balance, sales-tax pressures; Finance Committee approves year-end transfers and state-aid resolution

The Kingston Finance Committee heard a comptroller briefing on fiscal pressures and approved a set of internal budget transfers and a resolution urging the state to maintain and expand one-time municipal aid.

John (the city comptroller) told the committee the city used $2.9 million of fund balance to balance the 2025 budget and warned that continued reliance on fund balance and rising employee-benefit costs will tighten options for one-time capital payoffs and short-term debt reduction in future budgets. "We experienced a $2,200,000 increase in our employee benefit cost in the '25 budget," John said, and noted that sales tax and property tax together account for roughly 70% of the city's general revenue. He reviewed five years of sales-tax growth and said sales-tax growth has slowed to a projected 2% or less in the current year, increasing pressure on the tax levy and fee structure.

Committee members followed with questions about sewer and water project bonding, EFC funding and the library project’s effect on the city’s constitutional debt limit. The comptroller warned that higher debt levels and continued use of fund balance would reduce the city’s ability to use fund balance for one-time capital expenses.

After discussion, the committee approved several administrative transfers and year-end adjustments (no immediate new net cost to the city’s overall budget): a small internal transfer to reconcile parks department accounts, a $32,950 transfer from fund balance to reconcile parks retirement accruals, a set of internal reallocations within the Fire Department to cover overtime and other year-end adjustments (funds moved from under-spent accounts and anticipated ambulance revenue), and a $70,000 transfer from fund balance to cover judgments and claims. Each transfer was presented as part of close-out for 2024 accounts and was approved by the committee.

The committee also approved a sample resolution asking the state to maintain and increase the recently expanded Aid and Incentives for Municipalities (AIM) funding. The comptroller said the city received about $356,000 from the state's additional $50 million allocation in the 2024–25 state budget and that city leaders are supporting NYCOM and other municipalities in a request to make the increase recurring.

All the transfers and the state-aid resolution were approved in committee votes recorded as unanimous in the meeting transcript. Committee members said they would continue monitoring fund balance, staffing and debt-service risks as the year progresses and requested additional detail on operating budgets and COOP (an item presented later) when needed.