Reston Group gives Cumming a clean 2025 audit; city reports strong fund balances

Will Merit of the Reston Group presented the city's audit for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025, and informed the council that the firm issued an unmodified (clean) opinion on the financial statements.

"This city is not broke," Merit said in response to a council question, summarizing the report's bottom line: an ending net position of $373,268,310, about $307 million of which is invested in capital assets such as streets and water-sewer infrastructure. Merit noted the citys unrestricted net position rose compared with the prior year and highlighted an $18.3 million positive change in net position for 2025.

Merit walked the council through fund-level details, reporting the general funds unrestricted fund balance at roughly $10.2 million (about 63% of expenditures, or about 7.5 months of operating coverage) and operating revenues and net income figures for enterprise funds. He said the largest revenue source remains the local option sales tax and that expenditures increased about 7% driven by public safety and parks operations.

The auditor also flagged upcoming reporting changes under new GASB standards, noting one implemented this year had little impact and that another (GASB 103) will alter how noncapital subsidies appear on enterprise fund statements beginning next year.

Council members asked questions and the auditor offered to provide supporting charts and the report materials for the councils records. The audit presentation will be included in the city's annual financial report submitted to the State Department of Audits.

Provenance: topic introduced at SEG 445 and concluded at SEG 772.