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Schenectady council accepts 2024 audit showing mixed fund results
Summary
Schenectady City Council committee reviewed and approved the city's 2024 audited financial statements, which showed mixed results across funds, federal single-audit requirements and several recommended follow-ups from auditors.
Schenectady City Council committee members on June 16 accepted the city’s 2024 audited financial statements after a presentation by the city’s external auditors.
John Talfaske, auditor with Cusack & Company, CPAs, told the council the audit’s primary purpose is “to issue an opinion on your financial statements as to whether they're materially stated and whether they're in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles.”
The audit’s key figures included a general fund balance of $18,900,000 with $6,600,000 restricted; a reported water fund deficit of $759,000; a sewer fund surplus of $3,700,000; a recreation fund surplus of $168,000; and a capital projects deficit of about $10,000,000 (all figures presented as approximations in the audit). The city also reported $18,500,000 in ARPA expenditures during the year, $1,200,000 in unbudgeted AIM funds and adult-use cannabis revenues totaling $683,000.
The auditors noted that because the city expended more than $750,000 in federal funding during the year it required a federal single audit. Talfaske said the audit team would complete required federal reporting forms once the council formally accepts the statements. He also noted a repeating recommendation related to collection of older MBB receivables and other procedural follow-ups.
Council members asked questions about fund balance stability, how one-time items affected the sewer surplus and whether management’s discussion and analysis could include more local growth data. Talfaske said the management discussion and analysis is prepared by city staff and is not part of the audited portion of the statements; the auditors perform limited procedures over it.
A motion to adopt the 2024 audited financial statements was made, seconded and approved by voice vote at the meeting.
The auditors also reported a $9.9 million decrease in net pension liability related to ERS and PFRS and a $51 million decrease in the city’s total OPEB liability, items recorded under GASB requirements that the auditors described as paper liabilities that do not affect current operating results. The auditors will send a post-audit governance letter with their single repeating comment on receivables and will finalize federal reporting after the management representation letter is signed.
