State and federal aid to towns and counties hasn’t kept pace with inflation over the last decade, a report issued Wednesday by Comptroller Tom DiNapoli found.

The problem adds to the budgetary bind in which many now find themselves.

“The challenge is that the state has not been in a position to increase that unrestricted aid. It’s been an effort to at least hold flat what the aid has been,” DiNapoli, a Democrat, told the Times Union.

Funding for the state’s unrestricted aid to municipalities, known as AIM funding, increased $412 million from 2001 to 2011, mostly as the program was expanded to help cities. Federal aid increased $932 million over the same period, mostly as a result of the 2009 stimulus package.

At the same time, many municipalities saw costs for health care and pension contributions skyrocket, and contributions from taxes decline in the past five years as the economy went into recession and then entered a slow recovery.

Many towns, counties and villages saw the part of their budgets covered by the aid payments decline over the same period.

DiNapoli has been keen on examining the fiscal woes of the state’s municipalities, which are also grappling with a 2 percent annual cap on increases to the amount of money they raise through property taxes. This is the principal funding mechanism for most municipalities and school districts.

The comptroller said the shrinking aid money is “just another piece of the pressure” facing municipalities…..

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