10 Takeaways From The City Of Northport's 2021 Audit

NORTHPORT, AL — The Northport City Council on Monday received a final update as it passed its 2021 audit, which was referred to as "clean" and without any significants findings requiring the city's attention.

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City Administrator Glenda Webb also praised the city for its finances, made possible by "Controlled spending with conservative budgeting." Webb then told Patch she expects the 2021 external audit to be posted to the city's website sometime this week.

Certified Public Accountant firm LeCroy Richardson conducted the 2021 audit for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2021.

In terms of the financial statements mentioned in the audit, they are primarily divided into two categories: Governmental activities and business-type activities.

As the firm wrote, governmental activities include most of the city’s basic services, such as police, fire, public works, general administration, and finance. Most of these activities are funded by property taxes, sales taxes, and business licenses finance most of these activities.

Conversely, business-type activities are those that see the city charge fees to customers to help it cover the costs of certain services it provides, such as the city's water and sewer system.

While not getting too much into the weeds, here's a quick look at some of our biggest takeaways from the 2021 audit by LeCroy Richardson

1. The city's General Fund balance reported as of Sept. 30, 2021 in the audit was $32,765,526, which represents a year-over-year increase of more than $11 million.
2. The city's total assets for governmental services was reported to be $87,121,539, marking a year-over-year increase of roughly $10 million. Total assets for business-type activities came in at $70,596,855 , which is up from $58,496,428 the year before. In aggregate, the city's net position for total assets is $157,718,394.
3. Total revenues for the City of Northport exceeded budgeted revenues by $7,057,445, while actual total expenditures were less than budgeted expenditures by $5,570,661.
4. The City of Northport’s investment in capital assets for governmental activities last year was $9,729,175. Conversely, Northport’s investment in capital assets for business-type activities was $15,365,057.
5. The City of Northport had total debt outstanding of $53,120,369 as of Sept. 30, 2021, with the largest portion — $51,525,000 — representing bonds and warrants payable. The city also has $22,741,572 available on its line of credit for future debt.
6. In terms of salaries and benefits, the city paid out $2,676,257 last year.
7. Northport provided $350,000 to the Northport Redevelopment Authority in 2021 for its façade improvement program, as businesses were encouraged to apply for matching grant funding for external improvements to their locations.
8. When looking at tax revenue, the City of Northport collected a total of $24,241,528 from sales, use and property taxes.
9. For businesses licenses and other license fees, the city collected a total of $6,032,456 last year.
10. For the City of Northport's water system, the audit showed 14,622 customers on average in 2021, with fees generating $5.7 million in gross revenue. This statistic underscores rapid population and commercial growth in the city over the last decade, as gross revenue has increased by more than $1.1 million since 2011.

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