The city of St. Joseph has received a clean and unmodified audit report for the most recent fiscal year.
At a Monday meeting, CPA Kenley Penner with Plante Moran told city commissioners the city stayed within its budget for the year, with the General Fund seeing about $9.1 million in expenditures and $10.7 in revenues. It finished the year with a healthy fund balance.
“You see the governmental funds did have an increase of fund balance of just under $500,000 relative to the prior year,” Penner said. “The general fund did end with just under $5 million of fund balance, which represents pretty much six months or a half year of expenditures. So, a lot of communities have benchmarks of thresholds where they want to be, and you’re at six months, which is considered healthy.”
Penner said the city did plenty of capital improvements in the fiscal year, which is a good thing because those were investments in the community. He noted the city’s biggest expense was public works, followed closely by public safety. It also paid down about $2.5 million in debt.
One notable expense was the replacement of lead water service lines, something communities across the state have been having to do in recent years.
