Rangeley selectmen accept clean fiscal 2024 audit showing $1 million surplus

The Rangeley Board of Selectmen on April 22 voted to accept the town's fiscal year 2024 audit after a presentation from the auditing firm's lead auditor, who said the town received an unmodified (clean) opinion.

The auditor said the town posted positive operating results and held very strong liquidity going into the new fiscal year.

Heather Hunter, audit director for RHR Smith and Company, told the board the firm issued an unmodified opinion for the town of Rangeley's financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2024, and that the audit produced no disagreements with management and no management letter comments. "I'm happy to say you received an unmodified opinion, which you will also hear referred to as a clean opinion," Hunter said. She said the firm also issued a SAS 114 letter summarizing management estimates and audit communications and found no items that rose to the level of disagreement.

Hunter reviewed key figures from the financial statements. On a government-wide, full-accrual basis the town reported roughly $39 million in total assets, including about $9.4 million in cash and $29.2 million in net capital assets. On a governmental accounting (budgetary) basis, the general fund climbed to about $9.3 million in assets with cash representing about 96% of the fund's assets; unassigned general fund balance stood at $5,375,211 and represented about 59% of annual expenditures, Hunter said. Revenues totaled roughly $10.5 million (up about 14.5% year over year) and expenditures were just over $10 million, producing roughly a $1 million surplus rather than the roughly $500,000 draw the budget had planned.

Selectman Sam moved to accept the fiscal year 2024 audit; the motion was seconded by Selectman Keith and carried unanimously. The board also noted the numbers did not change between the draft and final reports; Hunter said changes were formatting only.

The audit includes a management discussion and analysis (MD&A) at the front of the report and detailed notes on debt (the town had no new bond issues and outstanding debt declined by about $623,947) and special revenue/permanent funds. Hunter recommended that anyone seeking detail on individual special revenue programs consult the footnotes in the audit.

The board had no follow-up questions at the meeting and accepted the audit formally so it could be placed on the town record.

The board directed staff to circulate the final report to officials and make the audit available with meeting materials and on the town's records.