Auditing Grantsville: what the city's audit and budget show

Auditing Grantsville is a Utah Ledger series that reads Grantsville City's audits, budgets, meeting minutes and contracts and reports what they show. It covers Grantsville City and its redevelopment agency, not Tooele County or Tooele City. ^[1][3]

This first piece sets out the baseline from the city's most recent audited financial statements, for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2025, and its fiscal 2027 budget, which runs from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027. ^[1][3]

The city posts its budgets on its finance department's budget page. The fiscal 2025 audit was included in the packet for the council's Feb. 18, 2026 meeting. ^[5][1]

The audit

Gilbert & Stewart, a Provo accounting firm, dated its independent auditor's report Dec. 30, 2025. It said the statements "present fairly, in all material respects" the city's financial position. ^[1]

Ron Stewart of the firm presented the audit to the council on Feb. 18, 2026. The minutes say he described a clean opinion with no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies identified, and one state-compliance finding: the redevelopment agency fund exceeded its approved budget. ^[2]

The audit reports a citywide net position of $134,628,192 at the end of fiscal 2025: $39,244,281 for governmental activities and $95,383,911 for business-type activities such as water and sewer. ^[1]

The general fund

The general fund, which pays for most day-to-day services, took in $11,930,520 in fiscal 2025 and spent $9,913,997. It also recorded $172,381 in lease proceeds. Its balance rose $2,188,904, to $10,317,505. ^[1]

Of that balance, $6,450,690 was restricted, including $2,991,036 for roads, $2,329,116 from impact fees and $1,130,538 for building permits. Another $591,423 was assigned to cemetery care, $33,955 was nonspendable and $3,241,437 was unassigned. These are accounting balances, not a count of cash in the bank. ^[1]

The final general fund budget for that year had projected $11,159,686 in revenue and $12,270,250 in spending. ^[1]

Debt

The audit's management discussion reports $27,046,653 in total debt outstanding at the end of fiscal 2025. That includes $20,649,447 in revenue bonds, $6,000,000 in notes payable and $397,206 in leases. ^[1]

Those totals predate the council's 2026 decisions on a new wastewater treatment plant, which are covered elsewhere in this series. ^[1]

Sewer and redevelopment

The sewer fund ended fiscal 2025 with a net position of $24,629,876 and reported operating income of $115,876. ^[1]

The redevelopment agency fund took in $753,522 in fiscal 2025, including $738,434 in taxes, and spent $558,051 against a budget of $26,000. It ended the year with a fund balance of $203,419. ^[1]

The fiscal 2027 budget

The council adopted the final fiscal 2027 budget by Resolution 2026-60 on a 5–0 vote on Aug. 19, 2026. The city's posted budget file labels its fiscal 2027 column "Proposed Final Budget." ^[4][3]

The general fund budget balances at $15,076,109 in revenue and spending. Its revenue includes $1,593,698 on a line titled "Use of General Fund" and $1,600,000 on a line for use of prior-year park impact fees. These are planned amounts, not spending that has happened. ^[3]

What comes next

Later stories in this series examine the redevelopment agency's spending above its budget, the borrowing authorized for the wastewater treatment plant, the contracts awarded for it, the 2026 property tax increase and a proposed October amendment to the fiscal 2027 budget.