New Yorkers continue to donate money through their state income tax returns to support the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center, but none of those funds have been disbursed in at least four years, according to a new report from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
The balance in the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center fund reached $148,041 at the end of state fiscal year 2026, up from $135,301 a year earlier, an increase of roughly 9.4%, according to DiNapoli’s analysis of New York’s personal income tax checkoff programs.
No money was disbursed from the Lake Placid fund in fiscal years 2023, 2024, 2025 or 2026, the four years detailed in the comptroller’s latest report.
The fund, established in 1995, receives voluntary contributions from taxpayers through a checkoff on state personal income tax returns. It also can receive revenue from annual service charges on Olympic Spirit license plates and interest.
Under state law, money in the fund is intended for the maintenance and operation of the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center and administrative expenses of the U.S. Olympic Committee. The Olympic Regional Development Authority, state Department of Motor Vehicles and Department of Taxation and Finance are listed as administering agencies.
The absence of recent spending from the Lake Placid fund is part of a broader problem identified by DiNapoli involving millions of dollars New Yorkers have voluntarily contributed for specific causes, but which remain in state accounts.
“New Yorkers have generously given their hard-earned dollars to income tax checkoffs,” DiNapoli said. “It is unacceptable this money is unspent. The agencies responsible for managing these funds must ensure contributions are put to good use.”
New York now has 36 personal income tax checkoffs supporting causes ranging from cancer research and veterans programs to food banks, libraries and volunteer firefighter recruitment.
Of those, 28 are funded primarily through taxpayer checkoff donations. Only 13 of those 28 funds made any disbursements during fiscal 2026, according to DiNapoli. Overall spending increased from $3.7 million in fiscal 2025 to $4.5 million in fiscal 2026, but balances nevertheless continued to grow.
The combined balance of the 28 funds reached $17.5 million in fiscal 2026, up from $16.7 million the previous year.
The Lake Placid account has followed that pattern. An earlier comptroller’s report showed its balance at $108,212 after fiscal 2024, when it received $10,270 and made no disbursements. The balance subsequently rose to $135,301 in fiscal 2025 and $148,041 in fiscal 2026.
That represents an increase of nearly $40,000, or about 37%, in two years without any reported disbursements.
DiNapoli has raised concerns about unspent tax checkoff donations for more than a decade. Legislation enacted in 2015 sought to improve reporting and generally requires donations to be disbursed within the year they are received to the extent possible.
The comptroller said state agencies need to provide greater clarity about why distributions are delayed and increase efforts to put the money toward the purposes taxpayers intended.
“More importantly,” the report states, agencies should “redouble their efforts to increase spending from the funds to serve the purposes that New Yorkers directed them to.”
