Auditing Morgan
The Ledger's review of Morgan's budgets, audits, debt and redevelopment money. Every story in the series, sorted by subject, with the figures the records show and links to the official documents.
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Auditing Morgan: What the city's audit and budget filings say about its money
Morgan City's fiscal 2025 audit received unmodified opinions. Its fiscal 2027 General Fund budget totals $6,747,770, including $1,106,470 drawn from the fund's beginning balance. This series reports what the city's filed records say, one finding at a time.
Read the explainer →Key figures
- $6.7 millionFiscal 2027 General Fund budgetAuditing Morgan: What the city's audit and budget filings say about its money →
- $371,697Unassigned General Fund balance, June 30, 2025Auditing Morgan: What the city's audit and budget filings say about its money →
- $1.1 millionFiscal 2027 appropriation from General Fund beginning balanceMorgan's fiscal 2027 budget appropriates $1.1 million from the General Fund's beginning balance →
- $3.3 millionRoad bond principal outstanding, June 30, 2025Morgan's three bonds, its reserve accounts and a 2013 loan between utility funds →
- $2.1 millionElectric system capital outlay, fiscal 2026 year to date (unaudited)Morgan changed its electric and garbage fees in June; here is what the two funds' records show →
- $660,263Redevelopment agency spending, fiscal 2025Morgan's redevelopment agency took in $352,795 in tax increment and spent $660,263 in fiscal 2025 →
Debt and bonds
Morgan's three bonds, its reserve accounts and a 2013 loan between utility funds
Morgan owed $5,849,000 in bond principal across three bonds at June 30, 2025. The audit reports the balances of accounts required by the sewer bond documents, including two at $0, and a Water Fund loan from the Electric Fund with $223,478 left.
Redevelopment money
Morgan's redevelopment agency took in $352,795 in tax increment and spent $660,263 in fiscal 2025
Morgan's redevelopment agency received $352,795 in tax increment in fiscal 2025 and spent $660,263, including $302,775 in business loans and grants. Its fund balance fell to $506,438. The fiscal 2026 year-to-date column shows spending of $1,073,433.
Budgets, reserves and taxes
Morgan changed its electric and garbage fees in June; here is what the two funds' records show
Morgan's council adopted Ordinance 26-08 on June 23, 2026, adding a business and alleyway dumpster rate and changing the electric service charge. The notice gives no amounts. The audit shows a $134,247 sanitation operating loss in fiscal 2025, and the electric fund's fiscal 2026 year-to-date system capital outlay was $2,063,608.
Morgan's fiscal 2027 budget appropriates $1.1 million from the General Fund's beginning balance
Morgan City's fiscal 2027 budget report appropriates $1,106,470 from the General Fund's beginning balance. The fund's audited balance was $1,676,589 at June 30, 2025, and most of that was restricted.
Contracts and spending
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Audits and compliance
Morgan's auditors reported a state compliance item in a letter not included in the filed audit
Gilbert & Stewart's state compliance report on Morgan's fiscal 2025 audit says testing found instances of noncompliance, described as item 25-1 in a separate letter to management. The opinion on compliance was not modified.