BRUCEDALE – Unpaid property taxes are on the rise in Guelph/Eramosa, but it was not flagged as concerning by accountants who presented the township’s 2023 audited financial statement to council on May 21.
“Ultimately, it’s a very clean audit,” said Murray Short, of RLB Chartered Professional Accountants.
“No significant concerns or internal control deficiencies to communicate.”
He presented an overview of the audit report, comparing numbers from 2023 to the previous year.
They showed an increase in cash and cash equivalents to $15,141,647 from $14,631,515 in 2022.
“Basically you raised more from your operations than you wound up spending in terms of repaying debt and acquiring new tangible assets,” Short said.
He added taxes receivable have “crept up” by nearly $200,000, from $1,699,975 in 2022 to $1,898,599 in 2023.
“That is very consistent with all of our municipal clients,” said Short. “But yours are still well within what we would be considering to be low range.”
‘No concern’
These unpaid taxes, which include taxes the township collects on behalf of itself, the county and local school boards, remain below average, so there is no concern he said.
Township director of finance Linda Cheyne said much of the slight increase is due to the timing of final 2023 supplementary tax bills issued in November for property assessment added by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) that were not due until the end of January 2024.
At the end of 2023, $1,765,586 was considered past due.
The nearly $1.9 million listed as “receivable” in the financial statement is only 5.7 per cent of all the taxes the township collects, and although it’s slightly higher than the previous year’s 5.4%, it is still well below average, said Short.
“The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing would consider anything below 10 to be low risk,” he said.
The other accounts receivable balance is down, which Short attributed to fewer grants outstanding at the end of the year.
Liabilities
In the liabilities section of the report, the accounts payable balance is down by about $1.3 million, “largely because of capital asset activity,” he said.
In the same section, obligatory reserve funds are also down by about $900,000, “just because of spending out of those reserve funds in the year,” he said.
The township’s long-term debt has decreased, with no new loans taken, Short said.
Overall, net financial assets were up – to $9,831,728 from $6,959,944 at the end of 2022.
The township’s tangible capital assets are up by about $1.5 million.
Short provided a graph showing the value of capital asset additions over the past five years, and noted the municipality spends less than is budgeted in any given year.
He also pointed out capital additions exceeded amortization values in most years.
“It’s not a perfect measure, but it is a measure to show that you are trying to stay on top of your infrastructure needs,” Short said.
On another graph showing long-term debt, Short pointed out the township’s debt position is below the average of other municipalities.
“The municipality is certainly not overburdened by debt,” he said.
RLB accountant Michelle Steele took over to present the statement of operations, saying overall revenues were up about five per cent from the previous year, and about 5.3% over what they were budgeted to be.
She highlighted the fact that user charges were down, owing partly to the annexation of the Dolime Quarry by the City of Guelph.
“Expenses overall are consistent with 2022, and with the budget line,” Steele said.
With total revenues of $17,902,496 and total expenses of $15,464,516, the annual surplus was roughly $2.4 million.
Adding that to the accumulated surplus from the beginning of the year of $110,650,661 and tangible capital assets of $1,384,911, the township ended 2023 with an accumulated surplus of $114,473,552.
