Auditor tells City of Washington it spent more than it took in last year | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The Washington City Council, meeting in its regular monthly meeting December 13 heard a report from its external auditing firm. You can watch the report below. As you listen to the auditor make her report she refers to a Powerpoint presentation which is not visible in the video. It's easier to make sense of the report if you have the slides she is using before you. You can review the material in the meeting's agenda material by clicking here. The report begins on Page 57.

    Here's the first part of the auditor's report:



    The next video is simply a continuation of the first.



    If you wish to read a capsule of the report, Mike Voss does his usual excellent job for the WDN and you can read Mike's report by clicking here.

    You will detect two significant things in the presentation and discussion. First, the City is spending more than it takes in. The Fund Balance in the General Fund decreased by $1,007,271 in 2010 caused primarily, according to the auditor, by a decrease in sales tax revenue without a corresponding reduction in expenditures. Property tax revenues increased slightly.

    The Electric Fund lost $80,381 in 2010, after $1,273,150 was transferred out to the General Fund. Meanwhile, the City made money on other utilities, netting $161,173 in water and $186,557 in sewer.

    The auditor states that the Electric Fund revenues increased by "around $700,000, which is due to your rate adjustment" while the operating expenditures increased by around $1.2 million with about $800,000 of that increase going for additional wholesale power.

    Thus, for those living in the Washington Utilities Area but not within the City and for other entities doing business with the Utilities (e.g. Chocowinity) the people in the Utilities area including those outside the city limits contributed approximately $1.3 million to the operation of the City (General Fund). The City does take credit for reducing that burden on utilities customers by about $200,000 in 2010 compared to 2009 but the City continues to depend on those outside the City to meet it expenses inside the City.

     Publisher's Note: We've been a bit short of staff this week, so we here at BCN do very much appreciate this excellent submission from the staff of the Beaufort Observer.