Mid-Hudson › Towns › Overlapping entities
Town of Highlands
Population 12,678 (Census estimate 2025; 2020 base 12,904) popest-2025 ⓘ · Meeting coverage: documents
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General fund spending (incl. transfers out) exceeded revenues (incl. transfers in) in 2023, 2024, 2025, and operating funds overall spent more than they took in in 2023, 2024 (last 3 AFR years). Planned use of fund balance can cause this; check the adopted budgets.
Debt outstanding rose from $4,094,658 (2022) to $7,279,137 (2025), +78%.
OSC tax cap filings: proposed levy exceeded the computed levy limit for FY 2024 (by $231,376, override planned). Exceeding the limit requires a local law override (60% of the governing body).
Compared with Mid-Hudson towns
| Indicator | Town of Highlands | Peer median | Percentile | Peers | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating spending per capita | $599 | $1,106 | 7th | 114 | AFR 2025, operating funds (our calc) |
| Property tax per capita | $315 | $579 | 14th | 114 | AFR 2025 real property taxes (our calc) |
| Debt per capita | $574 | $415 | 62nd | 97 | AFR 2025 debt detail, year-end outstanding |
| Debt service % of operating spending | 5.8% | 3.9% | 74th | 114 | AFR 2025 (our calc) |
| State aid % of operating revenue | 4.2% | 10.6% | 7th | 114 | AFR 2025 (our calc) |
| Sales tax % of operating revenue | 15.3% | 7.1% | 73rd | 114 | AFR 2025 (our calc) |
| Fund balance ratio (OSC FSMS) | 21.1% | 40.1% | 21st | 104 | OSC FSMS FY2025 |
| Operating spending growth over 5 AFR years | 30% | 27.3% | 58th | 111 | AFR 2021–2025 (our calc) |
| Levy growth | 20.4% | 14.4% | 65th | 114 | 2021–2026 OSC tax tables |
| FSMS fiscal stress score (higher = more stress) | 3.3 | 3.3 | 43rd | 97 | OSC FSMS FY2025 |
Percentile = share of same-class peers in the region with a lower value. A high or low percentile is context, not a judgment. Sales tax for towns and villages is county distribution revenue.
Five-year picture
Our calculation from OSC AFR account data: all funds except custodial (T*), capital projects (H), fixed-asset (K) and long-term debt (W) groups, excluding interfund transfers and debt proceeds.
OSC AFR, fund A, revenues and other sources minus expenditures and other uses (our calculation). Planned use of fund balance appears as a deficit.
Year-end debt outstanding (OSC AFR debt detail) and debt service expenditures (OSC AFR).
Levy as reported in OSC's annual tax tables for the year shown.
Assigned + unassigned general fund balance ÷ gross expenditures, as computed by OSC.
OSC's own scores and designations. 'Not filed' rows mean the AFR was not filed in time to be scored.
Annual Financial Report series
| Year | Operating revenue | Operating spending | GF revenue (incl. transfers) | GF spending (incl. transfers) | Property tax | Sales tax | State aid | Debt service | Debt outstanding | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 (FYE 2019-12-31) | $5,953,972 | $5,414,002 | $3,185,826 | $2,866,909 | $3,119,674 | $927,158 | $246,476 | $165,567 | $1,302,665 | afr-2019 ⓘ · debt-2019 ⓘ OSC snapshot 2026-09-30 |
| 2020 (FYE 2020-12-31) | $5,935,262 | $5,805,006 | $3,035,284 | $3,025,548 | $3,222,299 | $865,251 | $222,802 | $205,506 | $2,397,941 | afr-2020 ⓘ · debt-2020 ⓘ OSC snapshot 2026-09-30 |
| 2021 (FYE 2021-12-31) | $6,330,205 | $5,837,246 | $3,193,215 | $3,187,923 | $3,382,384 | $1,050,976 | $326,934 | $275,825 | $4,007,207 | afr-2021 ⓘ · debt-2021 ⓘ OSC snapshot 2026-09-30 |
| 2022 (FYE 2022-12-31) | $6,981,887 | $6,466,326 | $3,586,889 | $3,538,832 | $3,535,079 | $1,118,093 | $373,721 | $386,660 | $4,094,658 | afr-2022 ⓘ · debt-2022 ⓘ OSC snapshot 2026-09-30 |
| 2023 (FYE 2023-12-31) | $7,082,175 | $8,589,828 | $3,488,827 | $3,546,883 | $3,590,799 | $1,158,296 | $281,581 | $408,472 | $7,758,800 | afr-2023 ⓘ · debt-2023 ⓘ OSC snapshot 2026-09-30 |
| 2024 (FYE 2024-12-31) | $8,252,335 | $8,499,575 | $4,362,675 | $4,531,835 | $3,919,192 | $1,146,106 | $314,499 | $1,094,016 | $7,512,977 | afr-2024 ⓘ · debt-2024 ⓘ OSC snapshot 2026-09-30 |
| 2025 (FYE 2025-12-31) | $7,705,308 | $7,588,823 | $3,789,626 | $3,857,239 | $3,987,979 | $1,180,112 | $321,812 | $440,993 | $7,279,137 | afr-2025 ⓘ · debt-2025 ⓘ OSC snapshot 2026-09-30 |
Operating and property-tax figures are our sums of OSC account-level data (independent calculation, not OSC's own totals); GF = general fund (A).
Tax cap filings (OSC)
| Fiscal year | Prior levy | Proposed levy | Levy limit | Limit minus proposed | Levy growth | Override planned |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | $3,041,185 | $3,103,824 | $3,103,870 | $46 | 2.1% | No |
| 2020 | $3,103,824 | $3,205,836 | $3,205,837 | $1 | 3.3% | No |
| 2021 | $3,205,836 | $3,363,378 | $3,255,848 | $-107,530 | 4.9% | Yes |
| 2022 | $3,363,378 | $3,500,340 | $3,430,646 | $-69,694 | 4.1% | Yes |
| 2023 | $3,500,340 | $3,570,346 | $3,570,347 | $1 | 2% | No |
| 2024 | $3,570,346 | $3,881,178 | $3,649,802 | $-231,376 | 8.7% | Yes |
| 2025 | $3,881,178 | $3,965,617 | $3,965,618 | $1 | 2.2% | No |
| 2026 | $3,965,617 | $4,047,990 | $4,050,874 | $2,884 | 2.1% | No |
Source: taxcap ⓘ, snapshot 10/09/2026. Highlighted rows: proposed levy above the computed limit. Filings are as submitted to OSC before budget adoption; a later fiscal year that has not been filed yet does not appear.
OSC Fiscal Stress Monitoring System
| FY | Stress designation | Fiscal score | Environmental rating | Env. score | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | No Designation | 0 | No Designation | 20 | fsms-muni-2019 ⓘ |
| 2020 | No Designation | 0 | No Designation | 13.3 | fsms-muni-2020 ⓘ |
| 2021 | No Designation | 0 | No Designation | 13.3 | fsms-muni-2021 ⓘ |
| 2022 | No Designation | 0 | No Designation | 3.3 | fsms-muni-2022 ⓘ |
| 2023 | No Designation | 3.3 | No Designation | 0 | fsms-muni-2023 ⓘ |
| 2024 | No Designation | 3.3 | No Designation | 0 | fsms-muni-2024 ⓘ |
| 2025 | No Designation | 3.3 | No Designation | 0 | fsms-muni-2025 ⓘ |
FSMS fund balance (Indicator 1): FY2023 40.6% ($1,514,859 of $3,727,450) fsms-ind1-muni-2023 ⓘ · FY2024 54.6% ($2,622,604 of $4,806,262) fsms-ind1-muni-2024 ⓘ · FY2025 21.1% ($870,864 of $4,125,201) fsms-ind1-muni-2025 ⓘ
OSC audits (2)
- Town of Highlands – Water and Sewer Funds’ Financial Condition (2021M-152) January 21, 2022 · Financial Condition
- Town of Highlands – Receiver of Taxes and Assessments (2021M-120) January 21, 2022 · Cash Receipts
Source: osc-audits ⓘ. Matched by entity name in the report title.
In meetings
Context only. These links point to meetings where budget, levy, fund balance, debt or audits came up; they are not used in any figure above.
- 2026-09-28 · Town Board Meeting September 28,2026 · watch at 0:02
- 2026-09-14 · Town Board Meeting September 14,2026 · watch at 21:22
- 2026-05-11 · Town Board Meeting · watch at 2:43
Machine transcripts; listen before citing. Meeting Insights library
Profile data as JSON: /api/entity/orange-county/highlands.json