Excess Wasatch County School Fund Reserves

Possibly influenced by the Wasatch TaxPayers Association White Paper, Wasatch County School District has modified their 5% General Fund Reserve for the Fiscal 2012 Audit.

In 2012 the General Fund reserve was 13% "Unassigned" and 2.5% "Undistributed"

In 2013 it was 7% "Unassigned" and 5% "Undistributed" (actually 4.99% approx $1,652 less than the 'maximum')
 
    The terms "Unreserved" and "undesignated" are also used for these amounts.  It is not clear if unassigned is the same as unreserved or undesignated.  Perhaps unreserved is the same as undistributed . . . or undone, unspent, unrealistic, maybe unknown and most likely uneducational.

They also added two extra categories to the general fund balances for "Employee Obligations" $537,725 and "Contracts & Encumbrances" $392,133

School

Gen Fund Rev

Unassigned

Undist

2013

Wasatch

$35,103,305

$2,424,755

6.9%

$1,750,000

4.99%

2012

Wasatch

$34,852,145

$4,396,968

12.6%

$881,256

2.53%

I continue to maintain there is NO difference between "Unassigned,"  "Undistributed," "Unreserved" and "Undesignated"  - A distinction without a difference, as eitherany can apparently used for anything (Rainy Day Funds).      (Notice below the increase in expenditures and the decrease in the fund balance.)


The excess above 5% should be returned to the taxpayers, through a property tax reduction this year.


The 2012 Report states:
 "Utah law allows for an undistributed reserve fund balance not to exceed 5% of the general fund budget.
 Total fund balances in the governmental funds were $13,277,221 as of June 30, 2012, and $13,458,558 as of June 30, 2011".

General fund – The general fund is the primary operating fund of the District. Unreserved and undesignated fund balance in the general fund was $5,109,813 as of June 30, 2012, compared to $5,669,846 as of June 30, 2011. The only nonspendable amount in the general fund was for an inventory advance of $5,200 as of June 30, 2012 and 2011 relating to the District’s participation in Northeastern Utah Educational Services which acts as a buying cooperative for nine school districts."

"The Board of Education revised the 2011-2012 budget during the year. Budget amendments reflected changes in programs and related funding. The difference between the original budget and the final amended budget increased the total amount of budgeted expenditures by $419,866. The fund balance decreased by $560,031 from $5,669,844 at June 30, 2011, to $5,109,813 at June 20, 2012."