Garden City receives clean FY2025 audit; council opens public hearing on 7.581 mill ad valorem rate to cover lost fire‑fee revenue

Kellen Shuford, the director on the FY2025 audit for Marter and Jenkins, told Mayor Campbell and the council that auditors issued an unmodified ("clean") opinion on the city’s financial statements and a clean single‑audit for ARPA spending. Shuford said the city ended FY2025 with roughly $105.5 million in total assets, about $36.9 million in liabilities and a net position of about $68.6 million, and that general‑fund cash and investments were about $17.9 million—equal to roughly 15.6 months of operating expenses.

Shuford said there were no audit findings, no uncorrected misstatements and no disagreements with management, and he flagged only routine accounting standard changes coming in FY2026. "We were able to issue an unmodified or a clean opinion," he said.

After the audit presentation the council opened a public hearing to tentatively set the city’s ad valorem tax rate for fiscal 2026. Finance Director Katie Drager said the budget had been amended because Garden City lost fire‑protection user‑fee revenue and the fire department must be moved back into the general fund. "We had to do an amendment to the budget because of the loss of the fire protection user fees," she said, adding that the full fire department operating budget is now part of the general fund.

Drager presented the levy calculation and said the proposed millage rate under the amended budget is 7.581 mills (lower than an earlier estimate of 8 mills because of changes in the digest). She described projected distributional effects across property classes: of about 2,200 residential parcels roughly 1,700 are developed and the average home value is $214,000 while the average taxable value after exemptions is about $45,000. Drager said roughly 1,000 developed residential properties would pay less under the combined millage and prior fire‑fee model; for the properties that do pay more she reported the smallest modeled increase as $0.18 per year and the largest as $1,301 per year, with an average increase for affected properties of about $146 per year (about $12 per month).

On commercial and personal property, Drager said the city expects notable variance: of ~944 commercial/industrial parcels about 912 are developed, and some high‑value outliers could see large bills. She said the city expects roughly $2.8 million of additional revenue attributable to digest changes in personal property and other items, but noted that the previously budgeted fire protection revenue was larger (the fire protection operating budget was presented at $4.4 million and budgeted fire fees at $1.4 million).

Residents used the hearing to press for clarity. Shawanda Jeff (a Garden City resident) asked, "Why are we going up on taxes again?" and said the notices she received were confusing. Ozzy Rawlinger said he could not reconcile the numbers from the presentation and asked where residents could see the worksheets; Drager offered to follow up by phone and to post the presentation and the levy form online. Marcus Smith requested copies of the slides and asked whether the materials were public records; staff confirmed they would be posted on the city website and YouTube and that residents could request property‑specific comparisons.

Council members and staff said the millage could be adjusted in future years and pointed to prior years’ rollbacks when the digest grew; staff also said some resident categories—such as those with the Stevens Day freeze and the local $40,000 homestead exemption—will see limited impact on their taxable values. Drager recommended outreach to help residents apply for exemptions she said many people do not realize they qualify for.

The city closed the public hearing after taking questions and confirmed the hearing will be an open record; staff said the formal vote on the tentative millage will occur at the council meeting on July 20 and committed to posting the presentation, the levy calculation form and five‑year history for residents to review.