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Cumberland receives 2024 financial audit: fund balance healthy, ESSER spending highlighted
Summary
An auditor presented the town's 2024 financial statements to the Cumberland Town Council on March 5, reporting about $11.9 million in unassigned fund balance, ESSER school spending of $4.3 million in 2024, and recommendations on water-department controls and cybersecurity.
The Cumberland Town Council on March 5 received the 2024 financial statement and audit from Kyle of Cetus (formerly Markham). Kyle told the council the town’s unassigned general-fund balance was about $11,900,000, roughly 13.6% of expenditures, and that overall fiscal results were close to budget.
Kyle said revenue for 2024 ran about $162,000 below budget, property-tax revenue was approximately $473,000 below what was anticipated for the year, and investment income added about $82,000 to general-fund receipts. Expenditures for the general fund were modestly favorable, about $79,000 under budget, the auditor said. He reported favorable variances in the library budget (about $132,000) and unfavorable variances in the highway budget (about $174,000) largely tied to master-lease expenditures.
On schools, Kyle said the school department’s unrestricted fund ended the year with a committed fund balance of about $5.5 million, equal to roughly 7.2% of its operating budget, and that the district spent about $4.3 million in federal ESSER funds during 2024. “Those ESSER funds are on the last tranche,” Kyle said, noting the town will not see another ESSER round labeled ESSER 4.
On enterprise operations, the water department recorded operating revenues of about $6,000,000 and operating income of roughly $170,000 in 2024, both modestly below the prior year. Kyle also reviewed benefit and long-term-liability funding: municipal pension plans are funded and the town’s police defined-benefit plan was funded at about 63% as of June 30, 2024; the town’s OPEB (retiree health) plan was funded at about 28% with a net OPEB liability just under $20,000,000.
Kyle outlined recommendations for continued improvement. He said controls at the water department have improved since 2023 but that the finance department would benefit from monthly billing detail and an updated receivable report. He also recommended continuing cybersecurity training and periodic vulnerability testing. On compliance testing, Kyle said the auditors found no noncompliance for ARPA or ESSER spending this year.
Councilors asked clarifying questions about the timing of tax receipts, water-department findings and pension/OPEB context. Kyle said timing differences in the town’s tax cycle explained much of the budget-to-actual variance in property-tax receipts and emphasized the town’s strong 97% collection rate.
No formal council action was recorded on the audit at the meeting.
