The city of Benton Harbor has received a clean audit for the fiscal year that ended in June.
At a Monday meeting, city commissioners heard from CPA Paul Matz with accounting firm Rehmann.
“What we issued was an unmodified audit opinion,” Matz said. “That’s the clean audit opinion. That’s the opinion you want to achieve during the audit process. It’s the best opinion, the highest opinion that we can give that, yes, we believe these to be accurately stated financial statements.”
Matz said a recent $6.5 million grant from the state to shore up the city’s pension fund is not reflected in this audit because the grant is too recent. However, it is mentioned in a footnote as a significant development for next year’s report.
“That will all be reflected in the June 30 of 2024 financial report. You will see both that revenue, how that reduces the liability.”
Matz said the city’s fund balance went down by about $822,000 in the most recent fiscal year, leaving the end of year fund balance at $5.3 million. That’s about six months of operating expenses, which is normal.
Matz also noted a lot of federal American Rescue Plan dollars were spent with the city still having about $3 million of those funds left as of June.
