Audit: Hoosick wrongly budgeted tax revenue

HOOSICK, N.Y. >> Town officials were criticized in a newly released state audit for shortchanging residents outside the village of Hoosick Falls in its allocation of sales tax revenue.

In a report released Thursday, auditors from the state Comptroller’s Office said the town erroneously allocated more than $130,000 in sales tax revenue generated between 2014 and 2016 to benefit all town taxpayers when it should have been targeted only to those who live outside the village. The audit was also critical of the town’s handling of seasonal revenue from its municipal swimming pool and skating rink.

By law, the report explained, if a town contains a village that is directly paid its sales tax revenue by its home county, the town must dedicate its sales tax revenue to eliminate any tax levy for residents outside the village before it can be used in a way that would also reduce the tax bill for village residents. Instead, auditors said, the town created “taxpayer inequity” by using the funding to reduce the town’s overall tax levy, essentially allowing village residents to get an improper decrease in their tax bills.

In their response to the report, officials said they discontinued the practice in handling the town’s 2016 sales tax revenue and will repay the amount incorrectly distributed from 2014 and 2015 revenue.

Officials also agreed to improve recordkeeping for pool and rink revenue in light of auditors’ findings that they were unable to independently reconcile deposits because daily collection records had incomplete information. They also found that collection records didn’t always match the amount of daily deposits and that pool employees waited as manya s 10 days before depositing admission and lesson fees and concession revenues during the 2016 season.