Hot Springs reports unaudited Q1 finances; general fund surplus down from last year

Finance Director Karen Scott presented the city's unaudited financial statements for the quarter ending March 31, 2025 and told the Board of Directors the general fund’s revenues over expenditures were "a little over $2,000,000," down from about $3,800,000 at the same point last year.

"Please remember, these are unaudited numbers," Scott said at the May 20 meeting. She attributed the narrower surplus to higher expenditures in the quarter — several capital purchases in urban forestry and parks, and completion of an elevator project — and to a reclassification that moved all debt service into the general fund. "All debt service is now budgeted in the general fund," Scott said, which increased debt service line items by 66 percent compared with the prior year.

Scott reported fund balances the same day: an unrestricted general fund balance of $33,300,000 and a restricted general fund balance of $8,700,000. In the street fund she said revenues over expenditures were just over $2,000,000 (compared with $2,500,000 the prior year), with an unrestricted street fund balance of "just over $15,000,000" and a restricted street fund balance reported as $1,761,000. Scott told the board the city had nearly nine miles of streets paved to date and that paving expenditures contributed to the street fund change.

On enterprise funds, Scott said the water fund’s revenues over expenditures were $638,000 year to date (down from $760,000 last year) and the wastewater fund’s year-to-date revenues over expenditures were $767,000, a slight increase attributed to a recently adopted rate increase. Scott described the figures as a year-to-date snapshot and reiterated they were unaudited.

Board members asked no technical accounting questions during the presentation; the mayor and city manager acknowledged receipt of the report and moved on to other agenda items.