City of Georgetown receives clean financial audit

The city of Georgetown came out of its financial audit for fiscal year 2022 unscathed, while also increasing its net position by $140 million.

In Georgetown's annual financial report for 2022, the city collected $47.2 million in sales taxes, marking an 18% increase from the year prior. It also gained $77.6 million in developer capital contributions and collected $48.3 million in water impact fees—a 26% increase and 18% increase from the year prior, respectively. The city’s total net position, meanwhile, rose to $1.269 billion.

In an independent audit of the city’s finances by Weaver and Tidwell LLP, auditors took a “risk-based approach,” meaning they did not look at every individual account. Instead, the group received the city’s finances and assessed what areas they believed were at the most risk.

“In this case, we decided to look at expenditures, revenues, cash investments and long-term debt,” said Brandon Tran, audit manager. “Those are three key areas for most governments.”

The firm issued an unmodified opinion on the city’s financial statements. The group also did not find any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in the city’s internal control over financial reporting.

“For people that don't understand what that means, effectively, we follow the rule books and somebody comes in from an outside party and says, ‘Hey, they're following the rule books, and we can't find anything where they're deviating from the rules,’” said District 7 Council Member Ben Stewart. “So it gives me great comfort in the fact that I know that you guys have done that.”