By BARBARA GREEN
editor@bowienewsonline.com
The City of Bowie received an unqualified outside audit for fiscal 2021-22 and accepted the report at this week’s meeting.
Councilors heard from Valerie Halverson of Mathis, West and Huffines who made the audit presentation. She thanked the city staff for its work and cooperation, noting there was one new accounting standard that had to be incorporated this year for leases.
With this standard leases are considered and booked as an asset and liability. Halverson said in that first year it is often hard to get into the new rules. The city’s primary leases are with Enterprise for its approximately 30 fleet vehicles. The capital assets and lease liabilities were increased by $408,513 and $186,908.
Here are some of the financial highlights:
• The assets of the city exceeded its liabilities at the close of the most recent fiscal year by $31,455,659 (net position). Of this amount, $10,274,974 (unrestricted net position) may be used to meet the city’s obligations.
• During the year the city’s total net position increased by $1,504,469.
• The governmental funds reported a fund balance of $3,095,390, which is an increase of $330,020 from the prior year. Of this amount, $2,092,710 is available for spending at the government’s discretion and $706,803 is restricted for specific purposes. The remaining $295,877 is assigned by the city council for infrastructure purposes.

Read the full story in the weekend Bowie News.