The council reviewed the 2012 city audit at the April
meeting. Overall the city is in good
financial shape. Some progress was made
in a few areas that are of note. We
received approximately $18,000 more in property taxes than budgeted. This is primarily due to special assessments
going to the general fund. When a bond
is paid off and funds come in, after the fact, they are general fund
revenues. The general fund collection
rate has remained nearly constant at 93% overall. Having this additional revenue is
helpful.
On the expenditure side we show a good deal of variance to
budget. Almost all line items show
spending less than budget. Some
explanation might be helpful for some of these.
The auditor has considered a portion of budget items as transfers rather
than expenditures. We budget for capital
on an annual basis and unspent capital is reserved in the Revolving Capital
Fund. The funds that were budgeted, but
not spent, were transferred to the Revolving Capital Fund. An explanation is helpful when looking at
expenditure areas.
· *
The area of General Government had a capital
transfer and spending was less than budget.
·
*Police had a capital transfer and spending was
less than budget.
·
*Our fire contract expenses were far below
budget.
·
*Public Works reflects a capital transfer and
spending less than budget.
·
*With parks we saw a capital transfer.
Overall our revenues were approximately $12,000 over budget.
Expenditures are about $7,000 under
budget making the net about $19,000 to the good. If the Pelican Township had paid the police
contract prior to the end of the year the difference would have been
approximately $40,500.
The Cemetery Fund is in good shape. We had a good year with sales and charges for
services. Expenditures in this fund
included a good deal of donations spent on the Veterans Memorial. The memorial
was funded entirely with donated funds.
At year end the Revolving Capital Fund carries a balance of
$633,691 in designated accounts. With
the fund transfers we made at year end the overall balance increased
approximately $69,000 with capital set-a-sides for future expenditures. These
were unspent capital funds in this budget cycle.
The audit has been placed on line so those who have an
interest in it can download it for review.
