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Independent auditor gives Lewiston unmodified opinion on FY2024 financial statements; fund balance above policy ceiling
Summary
RHR Smith presented the city's FY 6/30/2024 audit and reported an unmodified opinion. The city ended FY24 with a fund balance above its 8%--12% policy range, a reduced workers'comp liability and mixed revenue/expenditure variances.
Ron Smith, principal at RHR Smith and Company, told the Lewiston City Council at a March workshop that his firm issued an unmodified (clean) opinion on the city's financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024. Smith said the firm also completed the federal compliance audit required because the city and school department spend more than $750,000 a year in federal funds.
The audit presentation focused on general-fund activity and key ratios. Smith said the general fund was budgeted for about $157 million in revenues and collected roughly $166 million, producing about $9 million in over-collections, and that total budgeted expenditures of roughly $200 million were about $184 million spent, leaving under-expenditures that increased fund balance.
The city's fund-balance policy sets an 8% floor and 12% ceiling of operating revenues; Smith said Lewiston's fund balance sits above the policy ceiling. He summarized fund-balance components as including an unassigned city portion of about $28 million and a school unassigned reserve of about $16 million. Smith said, "you had $69,000,000 of fund balance." He also reported a decrease in the workers'comp unfunded liability to about $3.4 million from $4.7 million the prior year.
Smith presented debt and comparative metrics, noting a debt-per-capita measure for Lewiston roughly at $4,200 per person and saying Lewiston compares differently with other municipalities. He told the council the multi-year fund balance curve reflected COVID-era stimulus and service interruptions and that the city is beginning to see the fund-balance bell curve stabilize and, in some places, decline.
Tracy Roy, Lewiston finance director, and Smith answered council questions on the slides and supporting schedules. Councilor Chinnell asked whether the slides were part of the financial statement packet the council received earlier; Smith said the slides were a condensed set of talking points pulled from the larger report and that staff could share the slide file on request.
The presentation identified no audit findings that would change the opinion; Smith said the firm found no questioned costs in the federal compliance audit. The conversation moved afterward to budget planning and policy questions about debt limits and fund-balance targets.
Ending: The audit slide package will be made available to councilors and posted online, and city finance staff said they will provide the full audited financial statements for council and public review.
