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Fairburn’s financial news is good

By BEN NELMS
bnelms@TheCitizenNews.com

Fairburn council members heard the results Monday of the city’s audit for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. For citizens, and those they elected, the city’s financial status could hardly be better.

“We’re going to have a lot of good news tonight,” auditor Dan Post told the mayor and council.

The good news came in areas such as general fund issues, assets and liabilities, enterprise funds, the pension fund and the tax digest.

Post said the city has a budget surplus of $1.1 million with actual revenues outstripping actual expenditures, for a gain of $123,000. Collections in taxes, licenses and permits increased $1.34 million.

The city’s balance sheet showed a total increase of $15.1 million under the new mandated accounting methodolgy. Total assets increased $11.1 million, from $39.3 million to $50.4 million while total liabilities decreased $4.2 million, from $23.4 million to $19.2 million.

Post said the city’s taxable digest increased by $71.5 million. The increase will add $400,000 in property taxes to the city cofers. Cash also increased from 43.3 million to $4.8 million, representing an increase of $1.5 million. And Fairburn is in excellent shape with its pension plan, now overfunded by $465,000, he said.

“This is fairly unusual,” Post said. “Many cities have large deficits but we’re in good shape with our plan.”

Revenues in the city’s electric fund increased $417,000, or 10 percent, and remained relatively constant over expenditures. Water and sewer fund revenues increased 51 percent to $1.034 million, a 51 percent increase, while revenues over expenses inceased from $720,000 to $1.7 million, a 73 percent incease.

Post said the sanitation fund had revenues over expenses of $45,000 while cable fund revenues increased 20 percent, or $317,000 and the telecomm fund had revenues of $7,000 and borrowed $300,000 from the water and sewer fund.

In summary, Post said the outlook is positive based on the past year’s performance. Fairburn’s financial position was stable with mild economic growth. An overfunded pension fund, strong utlilty sales and the increase in cable television subscribers and revenues add to the positive outlook, he said. The council was also informed that the city had been awarded a Certificate of Achievement by the Government Finance Officers Association for Excellence in Financial Reporting. Fairburn has been awarded the certificate for 17 consecutive years.

“The audit shows we have a strong staff that is always looking out for our dollars and making sure we had a good year,” said Mayor Betty Hannah.