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

Auditing Nibley is a series from The Utah Ledger that examines how the Cache County city raises, holds, borrows and spends public money, using the city's own audits, budgets, contracts and meeting records. Every figure links to the public record it comes from.

This first story sets out the baseline: the city's most recent audited financial statements, for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2025, and its budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, 2026. ^[1][2]

The audit

Larson & Company of Spanish Fork audited Nibley's fiscal 2025 statements. Its report, dated Nov. 24, 2025, says the statements present fairly, in all material respects, the city's financial position. ^[1]

The auditors said they did not identify any deficiencies in internal control that they consider material weaknesses, and that their tests disclosed no instances of noncompliance required to be reported under Government Auditing Standards. They noted that their review of internal control was limited and not designed to find every deficiency. ^[1]

A separate state compliance report covered budgetary compliance, fund balance, governmental fees, restricted taxes and related revenues, and fraud risk assessment, and said the city complied in all material respects. The schedule of findings reads "None Noted" for both the current and prior audits. ^[1]

Reserves

Nibley's governmental funds ended fiscal 2025 with $13,635,983 in fund balance, an increase of $3,912,377 from the year before. ^[1]

Most of it was set aside for particular uses. The General Fund held $5,722,487 restricted for impact fees and capital outlay, the capital projects fund held $6,104,768 assigned to capital outlay, and smaller funds held $81,331 in restricted balances. The unassigned General Fund balance was $1,727,397. ^[1]

In fiscal 2025 the General Fund took in $8,218,835, spent $5,287,728 and transferred $1,100,000 to the capital projects fund. ^[1]

Debt

On June 30, 2025, the city owed $2,538,000 on two revenue bonds: $2,057,000 on 2004 sewer bonds that bear no interest and run through May 2034, and $481,000 on 2010 Municipal Building Authority lease revenue bonds at 4% that ran through October 2042. ^[1]

The fiscal 2027 budget says Nibley "recently paid off the debt owed on the City Hall offices," and the building authority fund shows no revenue or spending for fiscal 2027 with the note "Building has been paid off." The budget raised the authority's fiscal 2026 debt service line from $482,000 to $494,136. ^[2]

The same budget lists $3.5 million in proposed new debt for a new well and water tank, for the portion of the project not covered by grants. A separate story in this series follows that loan. ^[2]

The fiscal 2027 budget

The fiscal 2027 budget shows $27,594,000 in revenue and the same amount in spending across all city funds. That gross figure counts every fund, including utilities, impact-fee funds and capital projects. The General Fund, which pays for most day-to-day services, is $6,038,000. ^[2]

The budget keeps Cache County's certified property tax rate of .001376 and budgets $1,155,000 in real property taxes. ^[2]

Nibley also has a community reinvestment agency. In fiscal 2025 its fund had no revenue, spent $4,000 and ended the year with $500. The fiscal 2027 budget gives it $4,500 for professional services. ^[1][2]