Easley Receives Highest Audit Rating

The City of Easley has received an unqualified opinion report, the highest rating a municipality can receive.

Jason White with the firm of Byerley, Payne and White presented city council with the Fiscal Year 2012 Audit Report during Monday night's council meeting.

“It's basically a clean audit,” White said, of the unqualified opinion.

White said the city had expected a budget deficit of about $306,000 this year.

“The actual deficit was about $530,000,” White said.

The deficit comes from two sources, he said.

“Property taxes and business licenses both were about $100,000 less than budgeted,” White said.

Construction ceasing at the new Easley High School also impacted the city, he said.

“Those licenses went away, and that contributed to the deficit there,” White said. “That $200,000 was added on to the $300,000 that was budgeted for.”

City Administrator Fox Simons said there was also a shortfall from Fort Hill Natural Gas franchise fee collections, due to “the price of natural gas just plummeting through the floor.”

The mild winters of the past couple of years also impacted the franchise fees collections, Simons said.

“Just for historical purposes, we were collecting about $700,000 on that a couple of years ago,” he said. “We collected $400,000 last year. This year's not looking any better. We're continuing to experience negative pressure on that revenue stream.”

Simons said the city lowered business license expectations in the FY2012-2013 Budget.

“Our property taxes stayed the same, we budgeted the same number,” Simons said. “We're going to have to look at that.”

Simons said the city underestimated the amount it receives in State Aid to Subdivision funds from the state.

“So we'll see a significant increase for this year on that revenue stream,” Simons said. “Is it enough to offset it? I don't know.”

He said he would know more about property tax collections in about 60 days.

“Business licenses, we won't know anything until June,” Simons said.

Despite these challenges, the city's financial outlook is positive.

“We still have over $4 million in the general fund balance, which is about 34 percent of our general fund operating expenses,” Simons said. “We're still very strong, financially.”

Simons has always advocated the city maintaining a strong fund balance, which has help the city weather the recession.

Many financial analysts recommend cities maintain a fund balance of at least 20-25 of their general fund operating budgets.

Mayor Larry Bagwell said he'd recently met with officials from Sam's Club, who said they expected the new Easley location to open in June.