Auditing South Salt Lake: what the city's own records show about its money

The Utah Ledger is starting a records-only review of South Salt Lake's public finances, beginning with the city's annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2025. ^[1]

South Salt Lake City is a separate government from Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County. Its fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30, and the report says the city serves a population of approximately 27,017. ^[1]

The audit

Squire & Company audited the fiscal 2025 financial statements and issued an unmodified opinion in a report dated Feb. 9, 2026, saying the statements present fairly, in all material respects, the city's financial position. ^[1]

The auditor's report says the firm also issued reports dated Feb. 9, 2026 on internal control and compliance. They are in the Single Audit Report appended to the full annual report, which the city's Public Notice Website copy includes after the financial statements. ^[1]

The City Council's Jan. 28, 2026 agenda included a resolution acknowledging receipt of the independent auditor's report for fiscal 2024-25 and directing that notice be published. A Feb. 10, 2026 public notice said the audit was complete and could be inspected at the city recorder's office. ^[2][3]

In the internal control report, the auditors wrote that they identified one deficiency they consider a material weakness, finding 2025-001. It says the auditors had to propose a large number of corrections and adjustments to account balances so the statements would comply with generally accepted accounting principles. The finding attributes that mainly to incomplete month-end, quarter-end and year-end closing procedures, and says the adjustments were material in areas such as capital assets, long-term debt, accruals, revenue recognition, the city's investment in the Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility, and net position. The audit reported no significant deficiency and no noncompliance material to the financial statements. ^[8][9]

The same schedule lists a similar finding from the prior year, 2024-001, as partially corrected. It says management added steps and a deputy director to the closing process, that a large number of adjustments were still needed in fiscal 2025, and that management planned to expand its closing procedures by Aug. 31, 2026. Management's response to the current finding says it will keep improving year-end procedures and reconcile all balance sheet accounts. These are management's plans, not evidence that the fixes were completed. ^[9]

The audit found no federal award findings or questioned costs. ^[9]

The auditors' state compliance report gave an unmodified opinion that the city complied in all material respects with the state requirements tested, but it noted instances of noncompliance. It says certain fund expenditures, at the fund level and for each department in the General Fund, exceeded budgeted amounts, naming the redevelopment agency administration fund, the leased equipment and debt service fund and the sewer fund, in part because of the many audit adjustments. It also says that at June 30, 2025 the water and sewer utility funds had deficits in unrestricted net position and the redevelopment agency administration fund had a deficit in unassigned fund balance, and that state law calls for the next budget to include an appropriation toward such a deficit. And it says summary financial reports were not consistently given to the governing body monthly. ^[10]

Management's responses say it will review budgets before each year ends, amend the fiscal 2026 budget as needed to include transfers toward those deficits, and present summary financial reports to the council monthly. The report says the auditors did not identify material weaknesses in internal control over compliance, and that it expresses no opinion on management's responses. All of this describes fiscal 2025, not the city's current position. ^[10]

Net position and the General Fund

The city's assets and deferred outflows exceeded its liabilities and deferred inflows by $132,033,801 at June 30, 2025. Governmental activities accounted for $122,769,329 and business-type activities, such as the water and sewer utilities, for $9,264,472. ^[1]

The General Fund ended the year with a total fund balance of $13,681,107, of which $6,470,511 was unassigned. General Fund revenues were $26,690,404 and expenditures $23,436,337. ^[1]

Sales taxes brought in $21,865,201 citywide in fiscal 2025, about $366,000 more than in fiscal 2024, according to the report. ^[1]

Debt

The report says the city had total debt outstanding of $68,549,445 at June 30, 2025. ^[1]

That figure includes $51,587,847 in excise and sales tax revenue bonds, $7,478,622 in water and sewer revenue bonds, an $8,570,881 obligation under Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility bonds and a $912,095 financed purchase of a fire truck. ^[1]

The largest recent borrowing is the Series 2024 sales tax revenue bonds for a new public works campus, with $40,665,000 in principal. The city also drew $2,000,000 in fiscal 2025 on Series 2024 water revenue bonds. ^[1]

The utilities

The sewer fund ended fiscal 2025 with an unrestricted net position of negative $7,452,748 and a total net position of negative $2,761,300. The report attributes the larger deficit in part to the city's participation in Central Valley's Series 2024 sewer revenue bonds. ^[1]

The water fund's unrestricted deficit was $1,613,072, which the report says shrank mainly because of a $2,804,200 transfer into the fund. Net position is an accounting measure, not a bank balance. ^[1]

Redevelopment

The Redevelopment Agency of South Salt Lake, created in 1982, is governed by a board made up of the City Council. The report says the agency moved from one fund to several in fiscal 2025 and that its funds' combined balance was $763,273 at year-end. ^[1]

The fiscal 2027 budget

The City Council held a public hearing on June 10, 2026, on a fiscal 2027 budget covering 11 funds, from the General Fund and a Public Safety Service fund to water, wastewater, stormwater and a Transportation Utility fund. The notice said the budget included a proposed increase in the public safety property tax levy. ^[4]

The June 10 packet included an ordinance adopting the tentative General Fund budget as an interim budget until an Aug. 11, 2026 hearing and final adoption. Its worksheet shows no appropriation from General Fund balance in fiscal 2027, compared with $13,652,000 budgeted in fiscal 2026. ^[5]

Notices the city posted Sept. 11, 2026 say that at its Aug. 11 truth-in-taxation hearing meeting the council approved Ordinance 2026-28, adopting the interim General Fund budget as the final General Fund budget, and Ordinance 2026-29, doing the same for the Public Safety Service Fund, for the year July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. The notices do not give the budget totals. ^[6][7]

In this series

The series covers the sewer fund's deficit and the September 2026 sewer fee ordinance, the proposed public safety property tax increase, the overhaul of the transportation utility fee, and the bond-financed public works campus. ^[1][4][5]