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Carrollton finance chief presents clean audit, outlines bond authorization and debt strategy
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Summary
CFO Diane Von presented the annual comprehensive financial report, highlighted a clean audit opinion, rising capital investment and debt metrics, and explained the city’s approach to selling bond authorization in phases; council asked about economic-development steps to protect sales-tax revenue.
Diane Von, Carrollton's chief financial officer, summarized the city's annual comprehensive financial report and its fiscal health, telling council members that auditors issued unmodified, clean opinions and that the city met a 120-day best-practice target for reporting. "120 days is best practice for anybody who sells bonds... 180 days is your statutory requirement," Von said, and noted recent legislative changes make the 180-day timing consequential for future budget actions.
Von walked council through key performance measures, including an increase in net investment in capital assets and a rise in public-safety capital outlays. She said debt per capita rose from $13.68 to $16.30 between 2016 and 2025 but, adjusted for constant dollars, debt levels are lower than in past years. Von said the city had $202,000,000 in general obligation par authorization as of Sept. 30, 2025 and realized $227,000,000 in proceeds after selling at a premium; $61,000,000 of that authorization remains outstanding and the city plans to sell approximately $33,000,000 in the spring as projects are ready to proceed.
On revenue risk, Von highlighted concentrated taxpayer exposure among the top 10 payers and changes in industry composition, with wholesale and retail showing growth. Council member (speaker 11) asked what the council could do to mitigate sales-tax concentration; Von recommended continued economic-development efforts to attract desired business types and sustained lobbying at the state level to protect municipal revenue authority. "Lobbying, I would say, is self defense," Von said, noting her prior experience as a registered lobbyist and the need for municipal engagement to prevent state-level restrictions on revenue.
Von closed by reminding council that the ACFR informs debt rating and multi-year budget planning and that staff would distribute the full report and related materials.
Next steps: staff will provide materials to council and schedule further discussion as needed in committee or at the upcoming retreat.
