GV’s 2022 fund balance approaches $71 million, up $9 million from last year

BY FREDA MIKLIN GOVERNMENTAL REPORTER

On June 6, Shawn Cordsen, finance director of the City of Greenwood Village, presented the 2022 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (2022 Report) to the GV City Council in a study session which was audio-recorded, but for which there are no official minutes, which is GV’s regular practice for study sessions. The presentation was not a part of GV’s official city council meeting.

Cordsen noted that 2022 citywide revenues were approximately $64 million compared to expenditures of $59 million. After a mandatory accounting adjustment to record as an asset and a liability the city’s required payments of $3.3 million through 2027 for photo red- light enforcement equipment to American Traffic Solutions, Inc. of Mesa, AZ, he explained, “We added almost $8.7 million to fund balance (in 2022), taking it from $62 million to $70.6 million, a substantial increase.”

Fund balance is the amount of money left in the bank after all bills are paid at the end of the year.

The finance director said that 2022 was a year when, “We just kept seeing that revenue coming in,” resulting in income to the general fund alone exceeding the amount budgeted by $7.3 million, even after mid-year amendments increasing that budget, while general fund expenditures came in $2.1 million under the adjusted budgeted amount, for a positive variance of $9.4 million.

Paul Niedermuller, principal at CliftonLarsonAllen LLP, Broomfield (CLA), GV’s outside auditors, told the city council that the only change in the city’s financial statements from previous years was the capitalization of leases required by a (2017) rule of the Government Accounting Standards Board, and that his firm had found that all GV’s accounting practices are within allowable standards. He also commended Cordsen’s department with being “extremely forthcoming” in its cooperation with the auditors and noted that no adjustments to management’s financial statements were necessary for CLA to issue a “clean” opinion.

Council Member Paul Wiesner wanted to know how the budgeting process resulted in total tax revenues being nearly $7 million (17.4%) more what was expected. Cordsen explained that the finance department expected revenues to grow in 2021 after the 2020 COVID-related decline, but thought that, in

Common Sense Institute (CSI) named Dr. Reggie Washington as the 2023 Health & Wellness Fellow

“We are thrilled to have Dr. Washington at CSI,” said CSI Executive Director Kelly Caufield. “His expertise and broad understanding of health care in Colorado and the nation will be invaluable to our research.”

According to Caufield,

CSI Fellows have made it possible to achieve a significant increase in research.

“CSI Fellows are experts in their field and come from varied backgrounds and different political affiliations. Their work has sparked innovative ideas and solu- tions to the most significant issues facing our state and our nation.”

“We anticipate Dr. Washington’s research projects to generate a tremendous amount of interest as health care continues to be one of the biggest issues Colora-

2022, “Things would level out. In fact, they have not. They’ve continued to show growth over what we had prior to the pandemic.”

As well, he noted, “We’re still running (in 2023) 10% to 12% above where we were at the same time last year,” adding that the restaurant industry, once GV’s largest contributor to sales tax, has “backed off,” replaced by technology as the largest generator of sales and use tax. Cordsen pointed out that the building materials use tax, generated by new construction, is not a contributor to this calculation because it is not a general fund revenue.

No other city council members, all of whom were present in person or by remote connection, asked the finance manager any substantive question. The city manager followed up on what Cordsen had said about 2023 revenue trends. Cordsen told him that, based on current trends, his department estimated that GV sales and use tax collections for 2023 will be 10.5% higher than the amount that was budgeted when the year began. The starting revenue budget for 2023 was the amount collected in 2022 that exceeded that year’s budget by $7 million.

In total, the 2022 Report states, “The City of Greenwood Village’s overall net position increased $12,275,435 from the prior fiscal year.”

GV’s fund balance has increased steadily during the past six years, despite a short dip in 2020, for which the City received and added to its coffers $4 million in American Rescue Act Funds to make up for the decline in sales tax revenue it experienced during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The trend in GV’s total fund balance over the past six years is:

Year Fund Balance

2017 $54,000,000

2018 $55,000,000

2019 $56,000,000

2020 $51,000,000

2021 $62,000,000

2022 $71,000,000 fmiklin.villager@gmail.com dans face today,” continued Caufield. “We look forward to the release of our next health care study this fall.”

About Dr. Reggie Washington, 2023 Health & Wellness Fellow:

Dr. Washington is a National Consultant for HCA offering expertise in pediatric services to centers across the United States. Previously, he was the Chief Medical Officer at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children and Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center until 2023. His experience included 15 years of advancements in quality, physician satisfaction, and employee engagement.

In 2008 he co-founded the Rocky Mountain Children’s Health Foundation to provide support to families whose children were in need of care or mothers requiring breast milk for their babies.

As a physician and strategic leader he was the Co- Founder and Medical Director of Rocky Mountain Pediatric Cardiology and expanded outreach clinics throughout a fourstate area.

He earned his M.D. in 1977, became Board Certified in Pediatrics in 1980 and Board Certified in Pediatric Cardiology in 1981.