GLENS FALLS, N.Y. – Three years after announcing the city was in "moderate fiscal stress," State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli returned to Glens Falls to declare its finances have drastically improved.

At a Monday morning press conference with the city’s mayor and mayor-elect, DiNapoli announced Glens Falls’ fiscal stress score dropped from more than 56 percent in 2014 to zero in 2017.

While improvements like consolidating services with Warren County and eliminating the practice of taking on short-term debt to cover budget holes have been made, the comptroller credits the sale of the Glens Falls Civic Center as the biggest benefit to the city. Before selling the decades-old arena to private business owners, city taxpayers used to spend between $800,000 and $1 million a year on maintaining the building.

"There might not be anything else as big as the advantage that came when the Civic Center situation was dealt with, but it was the cumulative impact of scrutinizing the expenditures, doing more shared services that also contributed significantly," DiNapoli said following the press conference.

DiNapoli says increasing the fund balance from just several hundred thousand dollars to almost $3.6 million also improved the city's fiscal score.