Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said today that creating a super control board for struggling municipalities is under consideration, but he said his office is reviewing a number of options to help local governments.
“We’ve been looking at the various models,” DiNapoli said today at a news conference on a Troy corruption case. “We don’t have a one-size-fits-all strategy on control boards in the state, even with the ones that are in existence right now.”
DiNapoli said a control board for the entire state might be a way to help provide a uniformed response to growing financial troubles for local governments. But DiNapoli stopped short of backing the idea. He said some local governments could end up with control boards without state intervention because of their fiscal woes.
A state-appointed control board would oversee a local government’s books, be able to issue debt and have the ability to reopen labor contracts. Nassau County and Buffalo are under control boards, and places like Suffolk and Rockland counties are feared to be headed in a similar direction because of growing deficits.
“We’re going to see if there might be some recommendations that we would make should there be a move to having additional oversight, including control boards, down the road,” DiNapoli said. “We’re evaluating what some of the options may be.”
DiNapoli said he’s had no communication with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whom the New York Post reported Monday was considering a statewide control board.
