Auditing Lewiston: The city's budget, debt and audit, by the numbers

This series examines the public financial records of Lewiston. It starts with the city's most recent audited financial statements, for the year ended June 30, 2025, and the budget worksheet for fiscal 2027 that the city filed with the Utah State Auditor. ^[1][10]

Independent auditor Matthew Regen, CPA, PC, of Logan, said in a report dated Dec. 16, 2025, that the statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the city's governmental activities, business-type activities and funds. ^[1]

The audit

In a separate report on internal control, the auditor said he did not identify any deficiencies he considered material weaknesses, and that his tests disclosed no instances of noncompliance or other matters required to be reported under Government Auditing Standards. ^[8]

The state compliance report says Lewiston complied, in all material respects, with the state requirements tested, which include budgetary compliance, fund balance, impact fees and the Open and Public Meetings Act. The major state program tested was B&C road funds. ^[9]

The general fund

The general fund, which pays for city government, streets, parks, garbage collection and public safety, took in $1,824,351 in fiscal 2025 and spent $1,295,478. It transferred $212,128 to the capital projects fund. ^[3]

The final general fund budget was $1,542,452 for both revenue and spending. Revenue came in $281,899 above the budget, and spending came in $246,974 below it. ^[4]

Property tax brought in $508,961 and sales and use tax $502,360. ^[4]

Reserves

The city's governmental funds ended the year with a combined fund balance of $2,683,195, up $542,196. Of that, $630,648 in the general fund was unassigned and $1,478,375 sat in the capital projects fund. ^[5][2]

Across all funds, the city held $6,446,574 in pooled cash. The deposits note says $5,946,574 of the city's bank balances was uninsured and uncollateralized on June 30, 2025, and that the city has no formal deposit policy for custodial credit risk. ^[11][7]

Debt

At June 30, 2025, the city owed $8,526,032. Of that, $8,135,101 was a U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development loan carried in the water fund, $311,149 was sales tax revenue bonds issued in 2020 and $79,782 was 2018 sewer revenue bonds owed to the State of Utah. ^[6]

The debt note's payment schedule lists $465,821 in principal and interest due in fiscal 2026. ^[12]

The governmental activities column of the statement of net position lists no bonds payable. ^[11]

Utilities

The water fund reported a $238,899 decrease in net position for fiscal 2025, and the sewer fund a $562,098 increase. The sewer figure includes a $455,372 gain on the sale of land. ^[13]

Redevelopment

The fiscal 2025 statements present no redevelopment or community reinvestment agency fund or component unit column. ^[11][5]

The fiscal 2027 budget

A budget worksheet the city filed with the State Auditor, printed Aug. 18, 2026, lists $2,615,092 in general fund revenue and $2,614,449 in general fund spending for fiscal 2027, which runs from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027. Its fiscal 2026 budget column lists $1,630,100 for each. ^[10]