Auditing Roy: what we're examining and why

Roy's fiscal 2025 financial report says the city serves a population of approximately 38,107. ^[1]

The Utah Ledger is reviewing the city's public financial records: budgets, independent audits, bond disclosures, redevelopment budgets and the records of the separate fire district Roy has asked to join. This series reports what those records show. Each statement links to the record it comes from. Roy's fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30.

The budget

"The total General Fund budget for fiscal year 2026–2027 is $29,495,969," the city's final budget says. The document gives separate summaries for governmental funds and for enterprise and internal service funds rather than one all-funds total. ^[2]

The budget says the general fund includes a property tax increase of $1,749,050, or 34.25%. The City Council adopted the budget and tax rate in Resolution 26-24 on Aug. 11, 2026, by a 4-1 vote. ^[2][4]

A referendum petition on that resolution qualified, and the increase is on the Nov. 3 ballot as Proposition 10. A separate story in this series covers it. ^[3][5]

The budget also says Transportation Infrastructure "has several large construction projects underway and will use $1,398,000 from fund balance." ^[2]

What the audit says

The city's independent auditor, Child Richards CPAs & Advisors of Ogden, issued an unmodified opinion on the city's financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2025. Its report is dated Nov. 25, 2025. ^[1]

In fiscal 2025, general fund revenues were $25,992,539 and expenditures were $22,725,307. The fund balance rose $2,427,332 to $13,373,847. ^[1]

Of that balance, $5,513,802 was unassigned, which the report says equals 24.26% of general fund expenditures. ^[1]

The report puts the city's total net position at $103,792,319 on June 30, 2025: $60,384,502 in governmental activities and $43,407,817 in business-type activities. ^[1]

Unsigned minutes of the Dec. 2, 2025 council meeting say Management Services Director Amber Kelley described the audit as a "clean report," and the council voted to approve the 2025 audit report. ^[6]

A financial audit checks whether money was recorded and reported correctly. It is not a review of whether each project or program delivered what it promised.

Debt

The report lists $1,486,000 outstanding at June 30, 2025, on water and sewer revenue bonds first issued in March 2008 for $7,500,000 and refinanced in October 2017. Of that, $485,000 was due within a year. The bonds mature in March 2028. ^[1]

Redevelopment

The city's redevelopment agency fund took in $692,705 in fiscal 2025 and spent $400,064. Its fund balance rose $262,641 to $2,905,925. ^[1]

The agency's fiscal 2027 budget document gives differing totals in different tables, the subject of a separate story in this series. ^[7]