A proposal to place Oyster Bay, N.Y. under state oversight is "premature" according to Town Supervisor John Venditto, who said he has a plan to steer the junk-rated municipality on the right course.
Venditto is planning to release a comprehensive financial plan this summer in advance of forming the town's 2017 budget this fall, after New York State's fourth largest township had its bond rating slashed two notches to BB-plus in late April by S&P Global Ratings. The Long Island local government was cited for weak financial management that led to negative fund balances in recent years including a $19 million operating deficit in the 2014 fiscal year. Assemblyman Charles Lavine, D-Glen Cove, introduced legislation last week that would empower New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to appoint a fiscal monitor that would reject or accept budgets approved by the Oyster Bay Town Board.
"I think it's entirely premature," said Venditto of the state oversight proposal. "I am responsible for getting the town out of this mess and I have a plan coming together."
Venditto said the town has a challenging task decreasing expenses, but has been helped by a retirement incentive program that helped result in 103 employees coming off a roughly 1,200 payroll on July 1. The Republican supervisor, first elected in 1997, said major infrastructure investments were made at the start of the new century and the town had a triple-A rating until 2011, but then some revenues were miscalculated leading to cash flow shortages. He said the town was also hurt by a sharp drop in yearly mortgage taxes following the 2008 recession from $24 million down to $8 million.
Venditto formed a task force after the S&P downgrade comprised of himself, Town Comptroller Robert McEvoy, Town Finance Director Robert Darienzo, the town's accounting firm Albrecht, Viggiano, Zureck & Company PC, and its financial adviser, Fiscal Advisors & Marketing Inc. Lavine said the task force should contain outsiders with more objectivity, but Venditto great progress has been made by a group of individuals who have sound insight into the challenges Oyster Bay faces.
"There is nothing here that isn't fixable," said Venditto. "It's just a matter of will and a matter of implementation."
