Auditing St. George: what the city's own records say about its money

The Utah Ledger is reviewing St. George's public financial records and reporting only what the documents state. Each story in this series links every figure to its source and names the years it covers. The main records are the city's annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025, its adopted fiscal 2027 budget and approved City Council minutes. ^[1][2][3]

The fiscal 2025 report was presented to the City Council on Jan. 15, 2026, by Finance Director Tiffany LaJoice and Steve Palmer of the audit firm HintonBurdick. The minutes record no vote on the item. ^[4]

The budget

The council voted 5-0 on June 18, 2026, to adopt the fiscal 2027 budget, Resolution 2026-010R, with amendments. ^[3]

The adopted budget totals $543,755,425 across all funds, which the budget describes as an increase of $19.5 million, or 3.7%. That total combines every city fund, so it includes money moving between them. The general fund is $121,791,905. ^[2]

The budget says it does not include a property tax increase. The council adopted the certified tax rate of 0.000665, which the budget describes as up 0.000002 from the year before. ^[2][3]

The audit

HintonBurdick's report, dated Dec. 31, 2025, gives an unmodified opinion, finding that the city's financial statements "present fairly, in all material respects" its financial position at June 30, 2025. ^[1]

The city's total net position, a government-wide measure of assets minus liabilities, was $1,280,292,677, up $110,365,750 during the year. ^[1]

The general fund ended fiscal 2025 with a fund balance of $53,105,792, of which $34,565,211 was unassigned. That is a separate measure from net position, and the two should not be added together. ^[1]

Debt and redevelopment

Bonded debt totaled $102,835,000 at June 30, 2025, down $7,148,000 during the year. Of that, $13,025,000 was general obligation debt and $89,810,000 was secured by specific revenue sources. ^[1]

The report says two community development area funds ended the year with negative fund balances totaling $6.1 million. One of them, the Tech Ridge CDA fund, decreased by $5,793,632 after a transfer to pay for an east access road. ^[1]

The report also says $23,398,129 was spent in fiscal 2025 on construction of the new downtown City Hall, and $3,977,169 was spent by the Municipal Building Authority on its parking structure. ^[1]

What this series covers

The stories cover the Tech Ridge redevelopment fund's transfer and loan, the city's bonded debt and a downgrade on one electric bond issue, the airport's move out of the general fund and a difference between two general fund totals in the adopted budget. ^[1][2]

Not every record could be read in full. The Ledger could not retrieve the financial report's notes, its combining fund statements or its federal and state compliance reports, nor the budget's fund-by-fund detail pages. Questions those pages would answer are listed in the stories where they apply. The Ledger has sent no records requests or questions to the city for this series. ^[5][6]