Isophoric News · Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Oswego's combined funds ran a $5.3 million deficit in 2025, and its state fiscal stress score doubled to 6.7 but remains "No Designation"
The City of Oswego's combined funds spent $5,290,235 more than they took in during calendar 2025, according to the Office of the State Comptroller's fiscal stress monitoring data, after a surplus in 2024 and a deficit in 2023; the table below gives revenues, expenditures and results for all three years. Combined funds, under the Comptroller's system for a city, means the general fund together with the water and sewer funds, including the enterprise-fund forms of water and sewer where the city runs them that way, and not the general fund alone. The worksheet does not say which of them drove the deficit; Isophoric News asked the city on Oct. 23 whether it wishes to explain; the mayor replied on Oct. 26, directing the newsroom to file a request under the Freedom of Information Law to obtain the information requested, and the invitation was not otherwise answered. Oswego's score on the Comptroller's fiscal stress measure doubled from 3.3 for 2024 to 6.7 for 2025, according to the data the state released this year. It is still "No Designation," the best of the system's four outcomes, which covers scores from 0 to 44.9 against 45 for the lowest stress designation, and below the median of 8.35 for the 50 cities that received a numeric score. Revenue rose by about $3.3 million from 2024 to 2025 and spending by about $9.1 million, and the 2025 deficit is 8.56 percent of spending, against 3.67 percent in 2023.
The whole of the 6.7 comes from one of the system's nine financial indicators. Oswego scored zero on the other eight, including the one that measures the general fund balance, and 6.67 of a possible 10 on the indicator for operating deficits, which counts the years in the last three in which a city's combined funds spent more than they took in. Two of the three years measured, 2023 and 2025, were deficit years, against one for the 2024 score, which is why the number doubled. The system gives each local government up to 100 points for financial strain, so a higher number means more stress; the Comptroller flags cities that reach certain thresholds as susceptible, moderate or significant. It uses the annual financial report each city files with the state and does not measure environmental compliance, enforcement matters or the condition of particular funds.
Oswego is one of three cities at 6.7; 22 cities scored lower and 25 scored higher. Eleven cities scored zero. Eight cities are designated in stress for 2025, against four for 2024: Albany at 85, Dunkirk at 71.7 and Little Falls at 70 are significant; Poughkeepsie at 57.5 is moderate; and Elmira at 53.8, Schenectady at 47.9, Johnstown at 47.5 and Glen Cove at 47.1 are susceptible. Albany's score was 61.3 a year earlier. Eleven of the 61 cities did not file in time to be scored, among them Ithaca, Jamestown, Mount Vernon, Cortland, Rensselaer and Fulton, the other city in Oswego County; the newsroom has not looked into why. The data was captured by the Comptroller on Aug. 31, 2026, and covers the calendar year in full, before the city has finished 2026.
The city's own meeting records of the past year show the sewer fund under discussion, and the newsroom does not know whether that and the state's figures are related. On Feb. 17, 2026, according to the Administrative Services Committee minutes, the mayor proposed a $20 per quarter increase in sewer rates for both flat-rate and metered customers, "noting that past rate reductions were possible due to grant funding and completed consent decree work, but rising operational costs now require careful planning." The committee voted unanimously to table the request. The minutes record councillors saying the largely new council needed more time to understand the historical data, grants and past rate changes, that members need "sufficient time to review the financial data" and the long-term effects, and that the council should develop a long-term policy and avoid reactive "yo-yo" rate changes. At the Aug. 17, 2026, committee meeting the mayor said, in a discussion of sewer and water rates, "we're going in the wrong direction with the sewer" and that the water fund "is not as bad," according to the meeting video's machine transcript. The state's worksheet does not break the combined deficit out by fund, so it cannot be said whether the sewer fund contributed to it, and a deficit in one year, with a surplus the year before, is a different thing from a trend.
City of Oswego combined funds, calendar years 2023 to 2025, revenues and expenditures including transfers
| Combined funds | Revenues | Expenditures | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| CY2023 | $52,827,393 | $54,841,221 | -$2,013,828 |
| CY2024 | $53,141,452 | $52,694,513 | +$446,939 |
| CY2025 | $56,488,705 | $61,778,940 | -$5,290,235 |
Source A · Source B · Source C · Source D · Source E
Documents
- Fiscal Stress Monitoring System 2025 list and details worksheet Download · Original
- Fiscal Stress Monitoring System 2024 list and details worksheet Download · Original
- Administrative Services Committee minutes, February 17, 2026 Download · Original
- Fiscal Stress Monitoring System Manual, January 2022 Download · Original
- Accounting and Reporting Manual for Counties, Cities, Towns, Villages, Libraries, April 2024 Download · Original