Auditing Richfield: what the city's public records show about its money
The Utah Ledger's Auditing Richfield series follows Richfield City's money through its own public records. The council accepted an audit of fiscal 2025 that its auditors described as unmodified, approved a $10.27 million tentative budget for fiscal 2027 that included a $500,000 property tax increase, and adopted the final budget and tax rate on Aug. 25.
Continuing story: Auditing Richfield
Auditing Richfield is a Utah Ledger series that reads Richfield City's audits, budgets, meeting minutes and contracts and reports what they show. It covers Richfield City, not Sevier County or other local districts. [1][2]
This first piece sets out what the council's own records say about the city's most recent audit, for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2025, and its budget for fiscal 2027, which runs from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027. [1][2]
The audit
Kimball and Roberts presented the audited financial statements for fiscal 2025 at the council's Feb. 10, 2026 meeting. According to the minutes, Gabe Miller described the opinion as clean, or unmodified, and Rick Roberts discussed internal control, saying there were some findings but that they did not represent a material deficiency. [1]
The council voted 5-0 by roll call to accept the statements. The motion in the minutes refers to the fiscal period ending "June 20, 2025," while the item heading in the same minutes names June 30, 2025. [1]
The minutes do not list the findings or give the audit's figures. [1]
The fiscal 2027 budget
On June 23, 2026, the council voted 5-0 to approve a tentative budget for fiscal 2026-27 of $10,272,761, which included a proposed property tax increase of $500,000. The minutes say $150,000 of the increase would go to the police department. [2]
At the Aug. 11 truth-in-taxation hearing, the minutes record that the city's budgets have been between $10 million and $11.5 million, varying mostly because of grants. [3]
The Aug. 25 agenda listed opening and amending the fiscal 2025-26 budget and adopting Resolution 2026-7 accepting the fiscal 2026-27 budget, along with Resolution 2026-6 on the tax rate. The minutes posted for that meeting record both resolutions passing 5-0, with the tax rate at .002277. They don't give a total for the adopted budget. [4][5]
The posted minutes for that meeting open by giving the date as Aug. 11, 2026. Their contents follow the Aug. 25 agenda, including approval of the Aug. 11 minutes, and the council's Sept. 22 minutes record approval of minutes of the Aug. 25 meeting. [4][5][6]
What comes next in this series
Separate stories in this series cover the property tax increase, the city's fire truck funding and an Aug. 25 lease of airport land to the state. [2][5][6]
Audit results are reported as the auditors described them to the council in the Feb. 10, 2026 minutes, which list no fund balances, reserves or debt. The $10,272,761 figure is the tentative budget approved in June, not the adopted total.
Sources
- Richfield City Council · Feb. 10, 2026 minutes (Utah Public Notice Website)
- Richfield City Council · June 23, 2026 minutes
- Richfield City Council · Aug. 11, 2026 special meeting (truth-in-taxation hearing) minutes
- Richfield City Council · Aug. 25, 2026 agenda
- Richfield City Council · minutes posted for the Aug. 25, 2026 meeting (opening line reads Aug. 11)
- Richfield City Council · Sept. 22, 2026 minutes
Background explainer by The Utah Ledger. AI-assisted reporting, checked against the sources above.