By Michele Evans / NYweeklyRecord.com / Date: 9/14/2026
NEW YORK CITY, NY – Two western New York towns operated without reliable financial records while local boards approved spending without the information needed to catch errors, according to audits issued by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office.
The findings cover the towns of Rose in Wayne County and Portage in Livingston County. The audits were released Aug. 21 and received wider public attention this weekend. Together, they describe weak supervision, late or inaccurate state filings and gaps that left taxpayer money exposed to misuse.
In Rose, auditors found that $4.9 million in revenue and $4 million in disbursements were not entered into the town’s computerized accounting system from January 2024 through December 2025. Only activity from January of each year had been entered.
The bookkeeper prepared monthly reports in a separate spreadsheet, but state auditors said those reports overstated receipts by $14,095 and disbursements by $212,431. The reports also omitted comparisons between the budget and actual spending. Monthly bank reconciliations were not prepared for the former supervisor’s review.
Rose’s 2023 annual financial report was filed 580 days late. The town’s 2024 and 2025 reports remained unfiled as of April 21, 2026. The accounting records were still incomplete after a new supervisor took office in January and kept the same bookkeeper and processes, auditors said.
Eighteen Rose employees also were paid a combined $611 incorrectly because payroll certification was inadequate, according to the audit. The amount was small compared with the unrecorded transactions, but it showed how routine controls had broken down.
Rose had $2.5 million in budgeted appropriations for 2026. State auditors said the town board lacked reliable information to manage finances and could not readily detect errors, irregularities or misuse of town resources.
Portage presented a different warning. The supervisor delegated accounting and payroll work to an outside bookkeeping firm but did not adequately review the firm’s work, the comptroller’s office found.
Auditors said the firm made $23,034 in unauthorized payments to the highway superintendent. The payments went undetected because the supervisor did not review journal entries, bank reconciliations or payroll before it was processed.
The Portage supervisor told auditors that he burned bank statements and relied on the bookkeeping firm to maintain records. The firm controlled bank transfers and processed payroll without the supervisor’s approval, according to the report.
Portage’s annual financial reports for 2021 through 2024 were not prepared and filed until June 2025. Auditors said the filings were inaccurate, unsupported and late. Monthly reports were kept on a cash basis rather than the accounting method required for towns, limiting the board’s ability to track obligations and financial condition.
The comptroller issued six recommendations to Rose and eight to Portage. Officials in both towns generally agreed with the findings or said they would take corrective action. Each board is responsible for preparing a written corrective action plan for the state within 90 days.
The audits did not accuse town officials of theft. They documented control failures that made improper activity harder to detect and, in Portage, allowed unauthorized payments to continue until auditors found them.
Taxpayers should not have to wait for a state audit to learn that millions of dollars were missing from local accounting software or that payroll was processed without approval. The next test is whether the town boards make their corrective plans public and prove that the controls now work.
Sources
Town of Rose – Supervisors’ Records and Reports (2026M-63)
Town of Portage – Supervisor’s Records and Reports (2026M-61)
State audits find major financial oversight failures in Rose and Portage
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