Texas side receives clean audit for 2017

An audit of Texarkana, Texas’ most recent annual financial statements revealed no problems, a local accounting firm has reported to the City Council.

At the council’s April 9 meeting, Rhonda Jones of Holliday, Lemons and Cox said the city’s 2017 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report passed muster.

“Our firm was able to issue an ‘unmodified’ opinion on the financial statements, which is a clean opinion. It’s the kind of opinion you want. It says that your financial statements are presented fairly in all material respects” and that they comply with certain laws, standards and internal controls, Jones told the council.

The city’s net position— how much its assets and deferred outflows of resources exceed liabilities—is about $171 million, but only a small portion of that amount is not already spoken for.

“The unrestricted portion of that is $4.6 million, so you can see that much of the city’s net position is either tied up in mixed assets or it’s restricted because it’s unspent bond money or grants, that type of thing,” Jones said.

The net positions of both the city’s governmental and business-type activities increased last year.

“Primarily that increase, which was quite larger than last year, is due to your interest in the joint ventures at the airport, the Bi-State, those joint ventures. Your businessactivities, which is Texarkana Water Utilities, also increased by $2 million, and the total increase is $6.5 million,” Jones said.

A Comprehensive Annual Financial Report is “a set of financial statements for a state, municipality or other governmental entity that comply with the accounting requirements established by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). It must be audited by an independent auditor using generally accepted government auditing standards,” according to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. All of Texarkana, Texas’ financial reports are available on the city’s website at ci.texarkana.tx.us/350/ Financial-Reports.