RICHMOND, Va. – Ten months after it was due, the city of Richmond finally completed a financial report that they were required by law to send to the state.
The mayor’s press secretary said that the report for 2014 was presented to City Council’s Organizational Development Committee today and said the city is now moving on to prepare the report for 2015.
The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, also known as the CAFR is essentially a thorough and detailed presentation of the city’s financial condition.
The 2014 report was due December 31 and Richmond was the only locality in the state that had not submitted one prior to today.
Some quick hits of the just published report:
- Property and other local taxes accounted for $430.9 million or 66.9 percent of total revenues.
- As of June 30, 2014, the city owed $70 million on a $150 million line of credit for financing Capital improvement Projects (short term debt). That would not include the recent spate of repairs and projects ahead of the UCI Road World Championship races.
- The city’s legal debt limit is $1,958,825,900, and there is an additional $1 million plus available
- The auditor found that city management cannot accurately determine the total amount of governmental activities’ capital assets, to include construction in progress and the related in-service dates for any projects that have been completed and should be reclassified as a depreciable asset. (pg. 28)
- The City’s assets and deferred outflows of resources exceeded liabilities and deferred inflows of resources by $1,013.4 million, up 8.6 percent from the year before.
- The City’s general obligation bond rating was upgraded from AA to AA+ by Standard & Poor’s.
- There was an 18.3 increase in liabilities dealing with governmental activities.
- Total expenses for Primary Government activities were $957.7 million. Four activities: general government, public safety and judiciary, education, and business-type activities accounted for the following amounts and percentages: $109.4 million (11.4 percent), $184.2 million (19.2 percent), $158.1 million (16.5 percent), and $276.7 million (28.9 percent), respectively.
- That means $118.6 million more was spent on business-type activities than education.
- Property and other local taxes accounted for $430.9 million or 66.9 percent of total revenues for the General Fund – which had a $2 million decrease.
- The city’s 6.7% unemployment rate is 1.4 percentage points higher than the rest of the state. Yet, the city’s unemployment rate decreased 1.5% from the year before.
- The population has grown to 217,853 in 2014, according to US Census Bureau estimates.
- The city’s current assets total (between governmental and business-type activities) $458,129,870.
- The city spent more on interest and fiscal charges than it did on culture and recreation.
- The city taxes on prepared food brought in $30,444,280.
- The city tax on foods brought in almost double the amount it did in 2005.
- Money from the meals tax jumped $5 million in the most recent two years.
- Real estate taxes brought in $216,006,348.
- Fines and forfeitures raised $10,221,786.
- Current general expenditures indicated that almost $17 million more goes toward public safety and judiciary than does education ($154,267,395).
- In 2014 there were 23,775 students enrolled, the highest in five years. But ten years ago, there were 24,726 students enrolled.
- 143,855 tickets were sold at the Landmark Theater. In 2012, before construction, there were 217,104 tickets sold.
The full report can be read here.
