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Finance Committee hears clean audit, accepts 2025 financial statements
Summary
At a Finance Committee meeting, Village auditors Baker Tilly reported a clean (unmodified) opinion and no audit entries for 2025; the committee approved the draft financial statements and reporting, and staff will issue final reports on Monday.
Justin Hogland, principal at accounting firm Baker Tilly, told the Village of Waunakee Finance Committee that the firm will issue a clean (unmodified) opinion on the village’s 2025 financial statements and that “we again had no audit entries this year.” He said the final reports are scheduled to be issued on Monday.
Hogland walked members through key figures in the draft reports, saying the general fund is presented in three buckets: non-spendable (about $184,000 in prepaids), assigned (roughly $2 million), and unassigned (about $4.5 million). He noted the village finished the year with a $17,000 net income versus a final budget that had anticipated using roughly $730,000 of fund balance.
On revenues and expenditures, Hogland said the village was about $700,000 better than budget on revenues—“about $221,000 of that relates to your investment income being higher than budget”—and that overall expenditures were also better than budget. He highlighted police expenditures were about $228,000 under budget as one of the larger expenditure variances.
Hogland also reviewed debt metrics, noting that Wisconsin law allows up to 5% of equalized value in general-obligation debt and that Waunakee had used about 18% of that capacity at the end of 2025. He said debt service accounted for about 18.6% of routine expenditures and described both measures as within comfortable ranges for municipalities the village’s size.
Committee members asked for locations of audit resources in the packet; Hogland pointed to the Baker Tilly “reporting and insights” document (executive reporting & insights) and said contact information is included. In response to a question about common financial risks, he identified segregation-of-duties gaps and levy pressure from inflation as frequent municipal concerns.
A committee member moved to accept the 2025 financial statements and Baker Tilly’s draft reporting and insights; Paul Carderella seconded. The committee approved the motion by voice vote. Hogland said the final reports will be issued on Monday.
The committee’s acceptance of the draft reports concludes the audit presentation; staff and auditors will follow up with the final issued reports and any necessary filing steps.
