Auditing Murray: What the city's budget, audit and debt records show

Auditing Murray is a series that follows the city's money through its own records: the annual budget, the audited annual comprehensive financial report, and the ordinances the City Council adopts. Every figure links to the official document it comes from.

Murray's fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. The latest audited report covers fiscal 2025, which ended June 30, 2025. The current budget covers fiscal 2027, which began July 1, 2026. ^[8][1]

The 2026-27 budget

On Aug. 11, 2026, the council adopted Ordinance 26-25, the city's final budgets for fiscal 2027. It sets the General Fund at $68,985,465, the Capital Projects Fund at $11,104,519, the Water Fund at $11,197,000, the Wastewater Fund at $13,822,995 and the Power Fund at $56,324,661. The ordinance lists the Redevelopment Agency budget at $6,524,205 and the Municipal Building Authority budget at $8,324,550. ^[1]

The $68,985,465 General Fund figure is total sources, not operating spending alone. The budget's revenue schedule includes $5,456,080 in transfers from the water, wastewater and power utility funds and $915,000 in use of reserves. ^[3]

The fund summary projects the General Fund ending the year at $19,711,827, down $915,000 from an estimated beginning balance of $20,626,827. It projects the Power Fund's reserve balance falling by $7,709,661, to $20,098,421. ^[2]

The council also adopted Ordinance 26-24, which levies 0.001448 per dollar of taxable value for the General Fund and 0.000286 for the Library Fund, a combined 0.001734. ^[4]

On Sept. 15, 2026, the council amended the budget with Ordinance 26-30. Among other items, it appropriates $15,658,092 from Capital Improvement Projects Fund reserves for projects in progress from the previous year's budget and $5,750,817 from Power Fund reserves for infrastructure improvements. ^[10]

Reserves

At June 30, 2025, the General Fund's unassigned fund balance was $16,181,468, or 25.9% of General Fund revenues, according to management's discussion in the audited report. The General Fund's balance rose $1,792,641 during fiscal 2025. ^[5]

The same section says state law allows cities to hold unassigned reserves of up to 35% of General Fund revenue, and the council has set a goal of 25% to 26%. It says the General Fund transferred $2.6 million to the Capital Projects Fund to keep reserves at 25.9%. ^[5]

Debt

At June 30, 2025, the city reported $98,099,383 in long-term bonded, lease and subscription debt, up from $81,782,589 a year earlier. Of the total, $97,758,768 was bonds secured by specific revenue sources. The city reports no general obligation bonds. ^[9]

The increase came mainly from $19,090,000 in power revenue bonds the city sold in May 2025. ^[5][9]

The Redevelopment Agency had no outstanding debt of its own at June 30, 2025, but it has agreed to make payments on the city's Series 2016 sales tax bonds. ^[11]

What the audit covers

The independent auditor, HBME, LLC, said the fiscal 2025 financial statements "present fairly, in all material respects," the city's financial position. That is an unmodified opinion. The report says the audit did not express an opinion on the effectiveness of the city's internal control. ^[6]

In its report on internal control and compliance, the auditor said it did not identify any deficiencies it considered material weaknesses, while noting that such weaknesses may exist that were not identified. Its tests found no instance of noncompliance required to be reported. ^[12]

In a separate report, the auditor said the city complied in all material respects with the state requirements it tested. Those areas were budgetary compliance, fund balance, justice courts, restricted taxes, fraud risk assessment, government fees, impact fees, Utah Retirement Systems and the public treasurer's bond. ^[7]

The city's transmittal letter says Murray did not receive enough federal funding to be required to undergo a federal single audit. ^[8]

What this series covers

The first stories look at the planned utility-fund transfers to the General Fund, the Oct. 20 hearing on electric rates, the 2026-27 property tax increase, differing figures in the city's tables of Fireclay redevelopment rebates, the Public Works facility project and the city's UTOPIA fiber payments.