New York City Comptroller Brad Lander has released the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, running from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024. The ACFR contains the City’s government-wide financial statements, as required by law, which provides the sound accounting foundation for the City’s fiscal health and good standing.
“In the face of persistent challenges, New York City’s economy is resilient and our finances are on sound footing, but there are vulnerabilities that we must attend to,” said New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. “Fifty years after the fiscal crisis, it’s time to update the City’s fiscal framework, and that includes addressing corruption risks and operational weaknesses in City procurement. I am grateful to my office’s Bureau of Accountancy for delivering another on-time Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, underscoring our office’s commitment transparency and fiscal responsibility.”
The ACFR provides the City’s financial statements, explanatory notes, supplemental financial and statistical information for each of the City’s accounting funds including the City’s five retirement systems and closely related entities such as NYC Health + Hospitals and the New York City Economic Development Corporation. The ACFR is prepared according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
The New York City economy continued to expand over the past year; total city employment surpassed its pre-pandemic level for the first time during the fiscal year and the city’s labor participation rate reached a historic high. However, economic growth in FY 2024 – particularly during the second half – was slower than in recent years. Furthermore, job gains were concentrated in the lower wage sectors, a concerning trend for the local economy. Looking forward, the Comptroller’s office forecasts that the New York City economy will continue to expand at a moderate pace.
The City’s financial strength relies on strong fiscal practices, many of which were established by the Financial Emergency Act (FEA) nearly fifty years ago during the City’s fiscal crisis of the 1970s. Earlier this year, the Comptroller’s office formulated a series of proposals to strengthen and modernize the City’s fiscal framework, including steps to ensure that the City accumulates sufficient reserves in its rainy-day fund, achieves efficiencies and long-term savings while avoiding cuts to vital services, conducts realistic assessments of its capital assets, and maintains the affordability of its debt.
While outside the scope of the ACFR, recent events, including a report from the New York City Department of Investigation, have also raised concerns about corruption vulnerabilities and operational weaknesses in the City’s procurement practices. The Comptroller’s office has put forward a series of proposals to prevent corruption in procurement, improve timely registration and payment, and ensure that public funds are administered with transparency and integrity.
For the 44th consecutive year, the City of New York has received the Government Finance Officers Association’s Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the FY 2023 ACFR. We look forward to receiving the award once again for the FY 2024 ACFR, which will mark 45 years of excellence.
The full Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) for FY 2024 is now available for download. As Comptroller Lander committed and implemented starting in his first year in office, the financial and statistical tables in the annual report are available for download on the Comptroller’s website at www.comptroller.nyc.gov.
Highlights from the FY 2024 Annual Report include:
City of New York Finances
- The General Fund had revenues and other financing sources of $112.814 billion and expenditures and other financing uses of $112.973 billion, resulting in a deficit of $159 million, excluding the adjustment for restricted fund activities.
- Including the adjustment for restricted fund activities, the General Fund had an operating surplus of $5.3 million. This amount increased the General Fund’s committed balance (the Revenue Stabilization Fund) to $1.964 billion.
- General Fund revenues were $4.577 billion higher than in FY 2023, a 4.2% increase. The growth in revenues was driven by an increase of $2.161 billion in State categorical grants, an increase of $1.320 billion in Federal categorical grants, and a $740 million increase in tax revenues.
- Actual FY 2024 revenues were $6.420 billion more than projected in the FY 2024 Adopted Budget, driven by a $3.037 billion variance in tax revenues. Overall, the City availed itself of $13.287 billion in additional resources that were primarily used to close the FY 2025 budget gap ($4.397 billion), and to fund, among other expenses, greater than expected contractual services costs ($2.651 billion), provide additional payments to New York City Health + Hospitals ($1.276 billion), and pay for greater than expected overtime costs ($1.255 billion).
New York City Retirement Systems
The Comptroller’s Bureau of Asset Management is the investment advisor to the City’s five retirement systems: New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS), Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York (TRS), New York City Police Pension Fund (Police), New York City Fire Pension Fund (Fire), and the New York City Board of Education Retirement System (BERS).
- As of June 30, 2024, the combined investments assets of the City’s five Systems totaled $274.383 billion, a $21.104 billion increase from the value as of the end of FY 2023. During the fiscal year, the fair value of the assets ranged from a high of $274.383 billion (June 2024) to a low of $241.676 billion (October 2023).
- The time-weighted return (net of manager fees) of the aggregate portfolio was 10.0% in FY 2024 and 8.0% in FY 2023.
- In aggregate the City’s pension funds are 85.5% funded to meet their long-term obligations.
Municipal Finance
The Comptroller’s Bureau of Public Finance works with the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget to issue bonds to finance the City’s extensive capital program and to refund outstanding bonds for savings.
- In FY 2024, the General Obligation and Transitional Finance Authority credits issued a combined nine new money transactions, totaling $10.345 billion, which raised more than $11.064 billion of proceeds for the City’s capital needs.
- However, due to historically high capital expenditures, the Capital Projects Fund’s balance worsened by $1.145 billion and closed with a deficit of to $7.492 billion.
- Starting in the second half of FY 2024, the City significantly increased the size of its bond sales with the aim of reducing the Capital Projects Fund deficit. This will also mitigate the decline in Total Governmental Funds balance, a potentially negative credit indicator.
- The City ended FY 2024 with a debt-incurring power of $25.397 billion. The debt-incurring power rose to $40.95 billion at the beginning of FY 2025. This was in part due to the first tranche of the $14 billion increase in Transitional Finance Authority’s outstanding debt not subject to the City’s debt limit included in the NY State 2024-2025 budget. An analysis published by my office found the increase in the City’s debt-incurring power appropriately sized and affordable.
Local Economic Conditions in FY 2023
- New York City’s job market grew by 65,800 jobs between the start and end of FY 2024, allowing the city’s jobs count to exceed its previous peak. However, growth was slower than that seen in FY 2023, when job gains totaled 140,000 as the last stages of post-pandemic job recovery were still underway.
- Industries with averages below the citywide mean dominated the City’s job growth. For example, Health Care and Social Assistance industry added 79,300 jobs over the period (year-over-year growth of 8.6 percent).
- For the second consecutive year, the city’s Information sector employment declined, with payrolls 18,100 below the industry’s pre-pandemic level, with many early FY 2024 job losses in this industry being attributed to labor union strikes.
- The unemployment rate was 4.8% in June 2024 (seasonally adjusted). From June 2023 to June 2024 the unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage points.
- New York City taxable sales grew by 3.1% in FY 2024, a significant slowdown in growth rate as compared to FY 2023 when sales grew by 12%. This decline was driven by declining inflation and slower economic growth.
- The housing market remained strong, with the median rent rising 1.3% in FY 2024.
- Manhattan office vacancy rates continued to climb in FY 2024, reaching 23.6% in June 2024, slightly higher that the last quarter of FY 2023. Post-pandemic office work patterns suggest a predominance of hybrid work with three-days per week in-office during a typical work week.
- The Consumer Price Index in the New York City Metropolitan Area grew by 3.4% in FY 2024, measured on an annual average basis, a decline from the prior fiscal year growth of 5.3%.
Read the full report here.
