San Benito earns clean audit; fund balance climbs to $16.3M

San Benito’s fund balance jumped nearly $1 million in the last year, climbing to a record $16.3 million, enough to run daily operations as long as 266 days, at least three times more than the recommended cash reserve stockpile.

The city’s fund balance has soared in the last 10 years.

Since 2014, cash reserves have climbed from $3.5 million, records show.

“The city’s doing very well,” Mayor Rick Guerra said Wednesday. “We’re looking at everything right now. We’re doing our best to move forward.”

In a meeting, the certified public accounting firm of Cascos and Associates gave the city a clean opinion for its bookkeeping during a review of its annual comprehensive financial report covering the 2023-2024 fiscal year.

“The best possible opinion you can get is an unmodified opinion, so congratulations on earning an unmodified opinion again,” auditor Alfred Vera told city commissioners during Tuesday’s meeting.

“This is a reflection of the work that is done here by the finance group, by the other departments and you all as a commission having oversight as well, so that is a good job and continue to do that,” he said.

With $18.8 million in total assets, the city’s general fund was operating with a $16.3 million fund balance, up from $15.4 million the previous year, records show.

Meanwhile, the city’s fund balance stood at $14.3 million at the end of the 2021-2022 fiscal year.

Under its total fund balance last year, the city’s had $11.6 million worth of unassigned cash reserves, Vera told commissioners.

“This is what we refer to as the rainy day fund,” he said. “This is what you can use for one-shot items. We do not recommend that you use it for anything that will keep on going such as salaries or increases, because eventually you will deplete it.”

In the city’s general fund, total revenues stood at $16.6 million covering total expenditures of $16.2 million, Vera said.

Everyday, he said, it costs the city $44,618 to run its daily operations.

Based on its fund balance, the city could operate for as long as 266 days without incoming revenue, far more than the recommended 60- to 90-day period, Vera said.

“Having more than that is good, so congratulations on maintaining that healthy days of operations,” he told commissioners.

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