Letter from Auditor to Council: City has $2.6 million less in 2011

City Auditor Jim Stith recently added some stunning graphs to his website that illustrate the seriousness of the City's poor financial health as outlined in his letter below from the 2010 Year End Auditor's Report Supplement. Click here to view the graphs, and click here to see the full 2010 report.

January 19, 2011

Dear Members of Norwood City Council,

This report is a supplement to the Auditor's Report for the month ending 12/31/2010. It offers graphical representations of the year-end totals. The report includes breakdowns of revenue sources, expenditures by departments, year to year comparisons, and a break-down of health care costs. In 2010 the City's General Fund expenditures of $21,488,050 significantly outpaced it's revenues of $19,911,737 with expenses exceeding revenues by $1,576,313. This has caused a decrease in the amount carried forward to only $578,084.

Overall the greatest expense was personnel at $ 16,979,191 with the greatest revenue source being local taxes at $14,718,618. While the City did well in cutting expenses last in 2010 reducing total expenses by ($579,208) over 2009 we saw a decrease in Contractual expenses of ($337,779) and Materials & supplies decreased ($99,427) while personnel increased $606,537.

2010 final appropriations were $22,281,038. With the decreased earnings tax revenue projected by the Treasurer’s office the current 2011 Certificate of Estimated Resources has $19,634,541 available for the General Fund appropriations. This means, according to our initial figures, that in 2011 the City has $2,646,497 less than the amount used in the final 2010 budget. This is an additional 11.8% reduction.

The Year End Auditor's report and this supplement contain the initial totals at the year-end closeout for 2010 and are presented unaudited. Detailed information will be available in the 2010 CAFR which should be completed in the Spring of 2011. I hope you find this supplement to the 2010 report a useful tool.

Sincerely,

Jim Stith
Auditor