It wasn’t hard to miss the slight smile on Finance Director Sheree Shore’s face Wednesday when she reported no major management issues that need to be addressed as a result of the 2009 audit that was presented to the Finance Committee.
“The city’s budget figures are in line with a lot of other cities and counties that we see,” said Rick Hartley, an accountant with Mauldin and Jenkins Inc. City Manager John Bennett was particularly interested in sections of the audit that showed that the pension and insurance funds are all sound.
“We’re going to work hard this year to not have that much of a decrease in the fund balance,” Bennett said. He had to tap the general fund balance for more than $676,000 to balance its books in 2009. The city ended the year with $10.7 million in the reserve account.
Download a PDF of the audit
“In water and sewer, even though we’re struggling with cash flow, our assets have increased significantly,” Bennett said. To be specific, the water and sewer assets are almost double the bottom line as recently as 2002. “It’s like buying a big new house, you’ve got a nicer house, but you’ve also got more debt,” Bennett said.
During the monthly budget review following Hartley’s audit presentation, Shore reported that business license fees collected by the city are down significantly compared to a year ago.
Through the end of April, business license collections have totaled $628,142 compared to $710,221 at the end of April in 2009.
City officials anticipate getting the final 2010 tax digest on June 18, which will give the city a very short window to establish its tax levy for this year. Shore said that she expects a tax increase for the school system, which will require three public hearings prior to the tax levy being established, that being tentatively set for July 19.
Bennett said that if the tax digest shows a 3 percent decline as suggested weeks ago by Chief Appraiser Bill McWhorter, then Bennett will have to make significant adjustments to the budget.
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