Colonie, New York Financial State
The Town of Colonie and the Strong Towns Finance Decoder
We are going to view the financial health of the Town of Colonie, New York's finances over time using the Strong Towns Finance Decoder.
Strong Towns is a non-profit with a mission: "We advocate for cities of all sizes to be safe, livable and inviting."
Strong Towns recently released the Finance Decoder, a tool to “visualize your city’s financial trajectory, and understand whether your city is on track to keep its development, service and growth promises.”
The tool is fairly straightforward: 1) you collect your city’s yearly, publicly available audited statements, 2) wade through the audited statements to find a dozen key numbers and input them into the Decoder tool (a Google Sheet), 3) review to make sure you did the data entry correct. What do Audited Statements look like? This is an example of the Town of Colonie's Audited Financial Statement for 2024.
We like the Strong Towns’ Finance Decoder for a number of reasons. You don’t need to be a CPA to input the data, you only need some patience to find key numbers such as the City’s total liabilities, or yearly interest payments. The tool presents the City’s data using 7 basic charts which are relatively easy for a layperson (like us!) to visualize and understand. The story presented is high level and does not get into the weeds; having read through a number of the Audited Statements it is easy to get overwhelmed with accounting details.
In the remainder of this article we will speak to our high-level process, we will describe one of the biggest caveats when looking at the data, we will show the 7 charts with their descriptions, and, lastly, we will provide a more detailed account of our process for those who want to know and/or validate what we did.
The Google Sheet that shows the full Finance Decoder for the Town of Colonie can be found online here.
Note at the end of the article we add in a link to the New York State Comptroller's Fiscal Stress Monitoring scoring for an additional data point about the Town of Colonie's health.
Scope of Analysis
As we built out the Finance Decoder for the Town of Colonie we included all of the Town's operations and funds in our calculations. This includes the basic governmental activities, the Latham Water District, the Pure Waters District and the Environmental Services Department.
7 Charts that explain the Town of Colonie
Sustainability Indicator - Net Financial Position
What it is:
The difference between the city’s financial assets (like cash and receivables) and its liabilities (like debt and pensions). This is the cumulative surplus/deficit that the city has accumulated through successive budget cycles.
What it tells you:
A positive net financial position suggests the city has more financial assets than obligations and is in a better position to weather downturns, invest in infrastructure, or respond to emergencies without resorting to borrowing or service cuts. If this number is negative, the city has spent more than it has saved and is relying on future revenue to pay past bills.
What the trend shows:
A downward trend means the city is growing more reliant on borrowing or deferring payments. An upward trend means it’s becoming more financially secure.
Our view:
While the Town of Colonie has significant liabilities they are generally constant, year over year. The Town has three main sources of liabilities - pension liabilities, other postemployment benefits (heavily healthcare benefits to retirees) and debt associated with capital purchases.
Sustainability Indicator - Financial Assets to Liabilities
What it is:
The city’s financial assets—such as cash, receivables, and other short-term holdings—divided by its total liabilities. This is a different way of presenting the Net Financial Position.
What it tells you:
This ratio shows whether the city has enough liquid financial resources to cover what it owes. A ratio below 1 means it would not be able to pay off its liabilities using only its financial assets, which is a sign of financial stress.
What the trend shows:
A rising trend means the city is improving its financial buffer. A falling trend suggests the city is becoming less able to handle its obligations without borrowing or cutting services.
Our view:
The Town's financial assets have grown by nearly 80% between 2019 and 2024 which ensures that Asset to Liability ratios look very good and getting better year over year.
Sustainability Indicator - Total Assets to Total Liabilities
What it is:
The value of all the city’s assets (including infrastructure) divided by its total liabilities.
What it tells you:
A ratio above 1 means the city owns more than it owes (solvent). Below 1 means it owes more than it owns (insolvent).
What the trend shows:
A downward trend means the city is becoming less solvent. An upward trend shows improving financial resilience.
Our view:
The Town's total assets have grown by 35% between 2019 and 2024 which ensures that Asset to Liability ratios look very good and getting better year over year.
Sustainability Indicator - Debt to Total Revenues
What it is:
The total liabilities the city owes compared to how much revenue it collects in a year.
What it tells you:
This shows how many years of income it would take to pay off all debts if every dollar went to debt repayment.
What the trend shows:
If the ratio is rising, debt is growing faster than income—this is unsustainable. If it’s falling, the city is gaining control of its obligations.
Our view:
The Town's debt level is concerning, given the Town's revenue. This is the metric with the least favorable position.
Flexibility Indicator - Interest to Revenues
What it is:
The percentage of annual revenue spent on interest payments.
What it tells you:
This shows how much of the budget is consumed by past borrowing. The higher the percentage, the less room for services, maintenance, or investment.
What the trend shows:
An increasing trend limits future choices and can crowd out basic services. A decreasing trend improves flexibility and budget health.
Our view:
The Town's interest on debt remains low.
Flexibility Indicator - Net Book Value to Cost of tangible assets
What it is:
The current value of the city’s physical assets compared to their original cost.
What it tells you:
This indicates how well the city is maintaining its infrastructure. A low value means assets are aging and wearing out.
What the trend shows:
A declining trend means the city is falling behind on maintenance. A stable or rising trend suggests it is keeping up
Our view:
This is the second most concerning metric. High performing cities typically have ratios that are around 65-70%. Our Town's ratio suggests aging infrastructure that requires more maintenance.
Vulnerability Indicator - Government Transfers to Total revenue
What it is:
The share of the city’s income that comes from state or federal aid.
What it tells you:
High dependency on outside funding makes the city vulnerable to political or economic shifts beyond its control.
What the trend shows:
If the trend is rising, the city is becoming more dependent on outside help. If it’s falling, the city is strengthening its local revenue base.
Our view:
Outside aid spiked in 2023 due to American Rescue Plan Act Federal funding and State Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. In 2024 this outside aid dropped by approximately $4 million.
New York State Comptroller's Fiscal Stress Monitoring
The Finance Decoder presents one view into our financial health. The New York State Comptroller evaluates government finances on a yearly basis using their Fiscal Stress Monitoring System. The Comptroller's monitoring system looks at other variables that have some overlap with the Finance Decoder, so it represents a good check.
The chart above presents the Fiscal Stress Monitoring System results for the Town of Colonie, between 2016 and 2024 (the 2024 results were published in September).
The Fiscal Stress Monitoring System scores each government's finances between 0 (great) and 100 (bad) using 9 graded indicators. There are bands or ranges that designate performance:
- 0-45 - No designation (this is the best rating)
- 45-55 - Susceptible to stress
- 55-65 - Moderate stress
- 65+ - Significant stress
The Town of Colonie had a heightened level of stress that rose to a level of Moderate Stress in 2017, declining into "Susceptible" and then "No Designation" in 2021 and more recently. For perspective, in 2017 the New York State Comptroler evaluated 932 Towns statewide and the Town of Colonie had the 5th worst fiscal stress score. Only Oyster Bay, Parish, German Flatts, and Oswego had lower scores. In 2024 the Town of Colonie is one of over 300 towns that have the lowest possible fiscal stress score of 0.
Data
For this study we used the Town of Colonie's Audited Financial statements from 2019 through 2024. We collected the Audited Financial statements from the Town's website.
While we have made every attempt to ensure that we have done the data entry correctly, and we believe that we have input correct information into the Finance Decoder it is possible that we have made one or more mistakes. We appreciate readers noting any issues that they see.
Note that we are making a copy of the completed Finance Decoder available here. This document is a Google Sheet and you will have read-only access to the Finance Decoder. We recommend saving a copy (File > Make a Copy) if you want to analyze, change, recreate, etc.
Process
In this section we will provide details on how and where we drew information from the Audited Financial Statements. There are 12 data points that we gathered. We will use the 2024 Statement as an example of where we found the data points.
- PDF page 39-40, Statement of Net Position. Current and Capital Assets, Deferred outflows, Liabilities, Deferred Inflow
- PDF page 41, Statement of Activities. Revenue, Debt Interest
- PDF page 62, Note 3. Capital assets being depreciated and Net Capital Asset value
Credits
This data story and its content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
Persons or organizations that Share or Adapt this content should provide Attribution that provides appropriate credit, which includes:
- © Copyright 2025
- Tyche Insights, P.B.C.
- David R, KarlTyche
For example, a data product or service that utilizes this article could include attribution such as:
"Portions derived from 'Town of Colonie NY Financial State', © Copyright 2025 by Tyche Insights, P.B.C., David R and KarlTyche & licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license"