The Lockport, N.Y. government may run out of money by the end of August, a spokesman for New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Aug. 21.
On Wednesday DiNapoli's office released an audit that said the city was on a path to run out of money in September. However an appendix to the same report noted that it had learned that the city had recently made significant payments and, "As a result, the City may run out of cash for operations sooner than we projected in our cash flow analysis."
On Thursday, the DiNapoli spokesman said that the city might run out of money this month unless the city took substantial measures.
In a press release, staff from DiNapoli's office noted that the New York State legislature has passed a bill to allow the city to sell a deficit financing bond to address its immediate financial problem. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has not yet signed the bill as of Thursday at noon, the DiNapoli spokesman said.
"The city of Lockport's accounting records were in such poor condition that city officials were in the dark about the true severity of their fiscal problems," DiNapoli said.
Additionally, DiNapoli is recommending that the city improve its accounting practices, provide adequate cash-flow analyses to the city council, develop a multi-year fiscal plan that does not depend on short-term borrowing, and adopt structurally balanced budget.
Lockport is about 14 miles east of Niagara Falls and has about 21,000 residents. Its senior most debt is rated BBB by Standard & Poor's and A2 by Moody's Investors Service.
Lockport officials did not return calls for this story.
