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Simsbury auditors deliver clean 2025 opinion; board hears stable fund balances and pension gains
Summary
Town auditors reported unmodified (clean) opinions on Simsbury’s 2025 financial statements and major federal and state programs, citing revenue gains and stronger-than-expected pension and OPEB returns; auditors and staff flagged a few accounting transitions and follow-ups for board oversight.
Auditors from CliftonLarsonAllen told the Simsbury Board of Finance on Feb. 17 that the town’s 2025 financial statements received an unmodified opinion, with no major findings in the federal or state single audits.
"There was an unmodified opinion on the basic financial statements," David Flint said during the board meeting, describing the result as the best opinion an auditor can give. Flint said the federal single audit similarly returned an unmodified opinion on major federal programs and found no compliance issues for the programs reviewed.
The presentation highlighted Simsbury’s overall net position of about $164.3 million and strong general fund reserves, with an unassigned fund balance of roughly $20.6 million (about 16% of the 2026 budget). Key revenue drivers in 2025 included property tax collections about $863,000 above budget, investment income roughly $770,000 over budget and higher-than-expected building department fees.
Flint also reviewed pension and OPEB positions. The three pension plans together showed a $27.5 million net pension liability (government $11.4M, police $5.6M, board of education $10.5M) with funding ratios ranging from about 73% to 81%. Strong investment returns helped reduce the net pension liability: "you'll see a 10.85% return on your investments," the auditor said. The OPEB plan reported an asset position (about 105% funded).
Staff and auditors flagged items for continued oversight: implementing GASB-related reporting changes (GASB 101 and GASB 102 were adopted in the year), completing a capital-asset module in the town’s accounting system, and following up on actuarial assumptions used for pension and OPEB calculations. Board members requested an experience study and requested a clearer break-out of budget-to-actual schedules in future reports to facilitate comparisons to the approved budget.
The board asked for a follow-up on the town’s compensated-absences payout and for staff to provide additional detail where standards or disclosures will change the presentation of long-term liabilities. The auditors said those estimated liabilities and fair-value measurements were significant estimates in the financial statements and would be closely documented in the management letter and footnotes.
Next steps noted during the meeting include adding requested variance columns to the budget-to-actual schedules and confirming timing for the experience study and implementation of the Munis capital-asset module. The auditors offered to provide further detail by email for items that could not be displayed during the presentation.
