As three councilmen sat on the dais for their last meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 27, they received an audit report for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017-18 that showed they left the city in good shape.

The auditing firm of Hinton Burton CPA’s and Advisors gave an “unqualified (clean) opinion” regarding the city’s finances with no significant findings.

For the year that ended June 30, the audit report showed that “total revenues from all sources were $36,839,400 and the total cost of all city programs was $35,530,898” giving the city a $1,308,502 surplus. These numbers include all sources of revenues from taxes to grants and all expenses including capital outlays.

When pulling general fund activities out separately, which is basically the day-to-day operational costs, “revenues were less than expenditures by $124,096. Actual resources received in the general fund were more than final budget [predictions] by $670,000 while actual expenditures were $1,472,974 less than the final budget.”

When breaking down the revenues by sources, the audit report shows that the city receives the largest amount from charges for services at 27.8 percent. The second largest source of revenue at 25.9 percent comes from the state consolidated tax. Property taxes contribute 17.8 percent of revenues.

Capital grants and contributions provide 13.2 percent of revenues. General tax receipts equal 5.1 percent, sales taxes are 4.3 percent, and room taxes come in at 2.5 percent of revenues.

Year over year growth in residential and commercial development continues. Comparatively, “for FY18 vs FY 17, building permits issued increased 13.9 percent and new construction value increased 16.3 percent to $100.2 million.”

Separately, “the redevelopment district capital projects fund has a total balance of $5,326,538 of which $645,465, or 12 percent is restricted. The remaining balance is assigned for capital outlay purposes.”

Considering the amount of debt the city carries, improvement were made in the last fiscal year. The report says “At fiscal year-end, the City had $17,254,952 in governmental type debt and $14,134,188 in proprietary debt. The City’s total debt net decrease was $3,123,180. Total long-term liabilities decreased by $2,964,333.”

The largest expenditures from the city’s general fund were for public safety activities that cost taxpayers $11,617,934. Public works operations took up $7,878,299 of the budget while cultural and recreation activities used $4,310,390. General government activities cost taxpayers $4,469,269.

The city originally budgeted a decrease in the general fund balance of $3,741,570 but ended the fiscal year with a net decrease of $1,598,596.

Total fund balances stood at $6.433 million at the end of the fiscal year with $2.390 million of that projected to be used by the FY 2018-19 budget.

The outlook for the FY 2018-19 budget appears healthy with operating revenues projected to be up 8.1 percent and operating expenditures increasing by 5.9 percent.

Following the audit report, the council tabled grant proposal requests from the Virgin Valley Community Education Advisory Board submissions for the 2018-2019 school year that would use sales tax receipts from local marijuana sales.

The board submitted a revised request at the council meeting for high school programs. Councilman George Rapson said he was uncomfortable approving the update without further examination. He also said he wanted the requests to be considered by the incoming new council members.

At the end of the meeting, newly elected council members Annie Black, George Gault and Sandra Ramaker were sworn in for four-year terms. Outgoing council members, Geno Withelder, Rich Green and Dave Ballweg were recognized for their service to the city.