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Port Royal audit: independent firm issues clean opinion; town posts $828,000 general-fund increase
Summary
Municipal auditors gave Port Royal an unmodified (clean) opinion on FY2025 financials and reported an $828,000 increase in the general fund balance to $5.83 million, driven by higher-than-budgeted revenues and underspending in operations; auditors also noted $4.517 million in federal grant spending (mostly ARPA).
Lisa Wexler, an auditor with Crowley Wexler & Associates, told the Port Royal Town Council on March 11 that the firm issued an unmodified (commonly called "clean") opinion on the town’s fiscal year 2025 financial statements.
Wexler said the government's net capital assets, net of depreciation, were about $11.0 million and that the town added roughly $3.42 million in capital assets during the year. She reported the general fund balance rose by $828,000 to $5,832,000 at June 30, 2025, and the town’s aggregate fund balances increased by about $1.05 million across all funds.
Wexler attributed the fund-balance growth to two separate factors: the general fund collected more revenue than budgeted and spent less than budgeted on operating activities, and capital projects funded with federal coronavirus-relief money were recorded in the capital projects fund rather than the general fund. She told council members the town spent about $4.517 million in federal awards in the year, most of it ARPA funding.
On specific figures, Wexler said tax revenue for the period was roughly $5.0 million, fines/fees/licenses around $4.0 million, and total revenues near $10.37 million. She noted long-term liabilities, including bonds and pension obligations, totaled about $8.09 million at year-end and cautioned that GASB changes require additional recognition of compensated absences and sick-leave liabilities going forward.
Mayor Kevin Phillips thanked staff for the work that produced the positive results. Wexler said the auditors found the town’s accounting policies and financial disclosures appropriate under the circumstances and reported no findings in the schedule of federal-award expenditures related to the major program tested.
The presentation closed with council discussion of next year’s reporting changes and a reminder that capital-project grant funds are not counted in the general-fund operating results.
