For the sixth year in a row, Grantsville City received the highest marks on its financial audit — an unmodified opinion.
Spencer Hintze from Gilbert & Stewart, CPA, of Provo, presented the city’s fiscal year financial audit during the Grantsville City Council meeting Wednesday night. He called the unmodified opinion the city received the highest you can get and what the city wants.
The city’s net position, which calculates the difference between its assets and liabilities, increased by $5.48 million in fiscal year 2018. Grantsville also saw positive changes in net position in its water, sewer and garbage funds over the past fiscal year of $950,336, $1.45 million and $10,633, respectively.
The city’s total general fund revenues, including property tax, sales tax and impact fees, exceeded the city’s expenditures by $623,388.
Grantsville City received $332,019 more revenue than budgeted, while expenditures were $341,069 less than budgeted.
According to the audit report, the revenue in the general fund alone was $282,319 above the audited amount. The increase was primarily from nearly $140,000 more in Class C road funds than budgeted and an increase in building permit fees, which brought in $109,000 more than budgeted.
At the end of the 2018 fiscal year, the city had $1.2 million in unassigned general fund balance, which can be used for spending at the government’s discretion.
The city is also carrying more than $6.5 million in long-term debt, connected predominantly to revenue bonds on recent construction projects. The city’s library, fire station and justice center account for $2.2 million, $1.5 million and $2.7 million of the long-term debt, respectively.
The city council praised city employees for securing another uneventful audit and Grantsville City Mayor Brent Marshall described another clean audit as a team effort.
“This is our sixth year with no findings, which is pretty remarkable, really, when you consider the amount of money that gets spent in a year,” Marshall said.