City’s fund balance on five-year upswing

The city’s fund balance has increased each of the past five years, and an independent audit performed for the 2016 fiscal year had no negative comments, the comptroller said this month.

City Comptroller John Tuey discussed the independent audit during a meeting of the Common Council’s Finance and Audit Committee earlier this month. He said the audit, performed by RBT CPAs LLP of Poughkeepsie, includes information on governmental funds in 2016, including the various categories of the city’s fund balance.

“The total fund balance for the city has increased annually ... since 2011,” Tuey told the committee. He said the fund balance as of Dec. 31, 2016, totaled $5,487,957, which was just over 10 percent of the city’s annual budgeted expenditures.

City policy requires Kingston maintain a fund balance of at least 10 percent of budgeted expenditures.

Tuey said the city has not used any of the fund balance it had included in its annual budgets to offset expenses during the past five fiscal years. Instead, it has added to the overall fund balance, he said.

In 2012, the city planned to use $985,000 of its fund

balance to offset expenses, but, instead of using that money, it added an additional amount, approximately $ 477,000, to the fund balance, Tuey said. He added that, in 2013, the city planned to use $671,000 of the fund balance, but, instead, added approximately $258,000.

In 2014, the city planned to use $802,000, but added approximately $ 117,000 instead, and, in 2015, it

planned to use $687,000 but added nearly $1.3 million instead, according to Tuey. He said the city planned to use $775,000 of its fund balance in 2016, but ended up adding approximately $865,000 instead.

Tuey added that the fund balance at the end of 2016 was the highest it had been in five years, but the city needed to continue to monitor that number. The

fund balance in 2011 totaled approximately $1.94 million, he said.

While t he cit y has tracked positively the past several years with its fund balance, Tuey said he did not think that trend was sustainable in the long term.

Much of Tuey’s report to the committee centered on the city’s fund balance. He added, though, that, for the 2017 f iscal year,

the cit y’s expenditures were “tracking very positively,” but that he had a bit more concern with the revenues Kingston will receive. Sales tax revenues have been excellent, Tuey said, but added that parking revenues were a little short and the revenue from grants depends on when the money is received.

The fiscal year ends Dec. 31.