High Point receives clean FY25 audit; finance staff report $4.4M fund‑balance increase amid accounting reclassification

At a March 2 special meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Monica Peters and the High Point City Council heard from Financial Services Director Bobby Fitzjohn that the city received an unmodified opinion on its fiscal‑year 2025 financial statements and noted a roughly $4.4 million increase in fund balance.

Fitzjohn said the audit arrived later than usual because a federal compliance supplement was delayed after a government shutdown and that the state treasurer extended the filing deadline to Feb. 12. "We are on time, although we are later than we usually like to be," he told council members.

The presentation emphasized an accounting change that lowered reported general‑fund revenues between 2024 and 2025. "We moved the showroom tax and the occupancy tax out to a special revenue fund," Fitzjohn said. "That led to a slight decrease in taxes and a slight decrease in licenses and permits"—an adjustment he estimated reduced reported revenues by about $4.8 million. After normalizing for that reclassification, he said revenues were up roughly 2 percent year‑over‑year.

On expenditures, Fitzjohn described only modest changes and said general‑fund expenditures rose about 1 percent overall. He said the city's fund balance increased by about $4.4 million, with the majority of that growth recorded in nonspendable and restricted classifications tied to prepaid items and encumbrances. "The most common reason for that increase in 2025 was actually fire trucks," he said, noting that purchase orders for apparatus can carry budget authority forward into the next fiscal year.

Fitzjohn also called out an approximately $1.6 million increase in unassigned fund balance that the council had appropriated for a SAFER grant and planned fire truck replacements. He reviewed enterprise funds (electric, water, sewer, stormwater, landfill, transit and parking) and said those combined revenues grew about 3 percent while amortization and depreciation rose roughly $2 million as the city's capital base expanded.

On financing and cash, Fitzjohn said the city issued about $46 million in new bonds during the year and received a roughly $24 million distribution from the North Carolina Municipal Power Agency that will be used to fund an electric operations center. He said roughly $172 million of the city's cash and investments were restricted and therefore not available for operations.

The presentation reviewed long‑term liabilities, including general and limited obligation bonds, revenue bonds and post‑employment liabilities. Fitzjohn said the city restated compensated absences to include sick leave; that change moved the related liability from about $8 million to an anticipated $20–21 million, a figure he described as a long‑term accounting recognition rather than an immediate cash obligation.

"The city has received an unmodified opinion in audit for the fiscal 25 financial statements," Fitzjohn said, adding that auditors would present a high‑level overview to the council later in the evening. He reported "no findings" and no performance indicators flagged by the Local Government Commission.

Procedurally, the council adopted the meeting agenda at the outset by unanimous voice vote, and later moved into a closed session for economic development.