KINGSTON – Ulster County Comptroller March Gallagher is sending a message to county lawmakers when preparing annual budgets – slow down.
As of December 31, 2025, the county held $142.9 million across all government funds and $136.4 million in total general fund balance, with $75.5 million unrestricted and $18.8 million unassigned.
While the county’s reserves remain healthy, the 2026 budget includes a planned use of $36.5 million in fund balance, and continuing to rely on appropriated fund balance of that magnitude is not sustainable, Gallagher warned.
“The deficit budgeting that we have been doing where we are closing the budget using fund balance, we have to be really careful about that,” she said. “In the past we planned to use fund balance, then revenues cane in higher than expected and expenses came in a little bit lower than expected and we didn’t need to use it, last year we used it. This year it looks like we’re going to use it, and you can’t keep doing that because you won’t have the resources going forward.”
Gallagher recommends that the county modify the fund balance policy to include the special grant, debt service and housing action funds so they remain transparent, justified, and aligned with their purpose and she suggested modified policy or new procedures to evaluate the adequacy of net position for internal service funds.
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