Updated town budget data recently released by the Office of the State Comptroller confirms the findings we published in this column last year and identifies the same three towns as the region’s most fiscally challenged: Taghkanic, Hillsdale and, most worrisome, Greenport.

We have made several enhancements to our analysis of the OSC data, designed to better rank the 28 towns in Columbia and northern Dutchess counties on the quality of their fiscal management and the likelihood they will need large property tax increases in the near future.

Our latest study ranks the towns on five key measures: 1) property taxes per capita; 2) total taxes per capita (including county sales tax receipts); 3) general government expenses per capita, which cover most services other than road maintenance and special districts for water, sewer, trash collection, etc.; 4) highway department costs per road mile; and 5) highway capital investment from 2001-2005 compared to the average for the 28 towns.

The detailed rankings are available at the “Budget Scorecard Database” on the right-hand column of the website, along with last year’s tables. We also offer consulting services to municipal officials to help them better understand and improve their own budget performance relative to their peers.

As we cautioned in last year’s “Budget Scorecard” column, the numbers compiled by the OSC are somewhat out of date—the latest cover 2005 budgets—and the financial insights they provide may not reflect the quality of services offered by different towns. The ranking tables, to which we’ve added the Town of Clinton, exclude the cost of fire protection due to complex reporting standards.

The 2005 town scorecard reveals a remarkably wide range of fiscal profiles. For example, Greenport, saddled with large property tax surcharges to upgrade its aging water and sewer systems, collected taxes of nearly $600 per resident, while the similar-sized towns of Milan and Kinderhook billed less than $150 per resident. Among smaller towns, Taghkanic and Hillsdale collected well over $500 per capita in taxes, about 60% more than the average for the 28-town sample.

The most fiscally impressive towns, judging from the OSC data, include Kinderhook, Red Hook, Claverack, Ghent and Livingston. The first four on the list have incorporated villages within their borders and receive significant subsidies from village taxpayers. We have tried to strip out the beneficial village impact on their rankings, but even after the adjustments they appear to be financially well-run towns.

One intriguing enhancement to the data may help predict the likelihood of future tax increases for road repair and maintenance, which typically absorb 65% of total town tax collections. The final ranking in the Budget Scorecard, Table 5, compares the towns’ capital spending on roads over the 2001-2005 period to identify those highway departments that may have been under-investing and, therefore, may see a sharp rise in property taxes.

The Town of Milan, for example, boasted one of the region’s lowest per capita tax burdens in 2005, and its highway department spent relatively little per mile of town road compared to nearby towns of similar size. However, Milan’s capital improvements to its road network over the previous five years were 39% below the average investments of the other towns, implying it may need to ramp up capital spending and property taxes. Conversely, Livingston Town demonstrated similar fiscal discipline in its highway operating budget in 2005 but spent 27% more than average on road investments from 2001-2005.

The towns of Greenport, Northeast and Copake showed much higher per mile spending in 2005 than comparable towns and also appear to have been under-investing in their roads over the previous five years.

Greenport’s fiscal profile is the most concerning. Not only are its tax collections nearly twice the average, but its relative under-investment in road works suggests it may be facing further tax pressures. One main reason for the very high current taxes is that the town has been assessing property owners for funds to upgrade and expand its water and sewer systems. Facing a $9 million improvement of its sewage treatment plant and costly expansion of commercial development on Route 9, Greenport is not likely to see tax pressures abate anytime soon.

Hillsdale, another high-tax town which is planning a major sewage investment, could also see increasing property tax levies in the future.

We will be expanding our analysis to highlight which towns have seen the largest and smallest increases in property taxes from 2004 until 2007, a revealing measure of fiscal stewardship. In addition, future columns will try to analyze in more detail why certain towns score well in our rankings and others do not.

Last year’s columns and tables comparing villages and counties in the region are also available on the website, and we will update them with more recent OSC data in the coming months. We welcome your questions and comments.