MURFREESBORO – The town of Murfreesboro continues to show signs of fiscal improvement. That’s according to the audit report the Town Council received here Wednesday during their regular meeting.

The report, which covers the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017, received an unmodified opinion from the auditors. That means the auditors found no issues with the accounting records and no mismanagement of funds.

Town revenues for FY 2017 totaled $3,260,851 which is an increase by almost $18,000 from the previous year.

Expenditures also continued their trend of decreasing from the previous year. At the end of FY 2017, the town’s expenditures totaled $3,014,728. That is $40,362 less than the $3,055,090 spent during the previous fiscal year.

According to the audit report, actual revenues outpaced the expected budgeted amount in the General Fund by $95,140, and actual expenditures were below the expected budgeted amount, totaling a savings of almost $116,000.

Total General Fund revenues equaled $1,992,516 for FY 2017 while General Fund expenditures equaled $1,781,413. Revenues over expenditures totaled $211,103, an increase by over $70,000 compared to the previous year.

These numbers showed a positive trend compared to before 2015 when the town’s General Fund was in the red with revenues under expenditures.

The report also showed that the General Fund Cash totaled over $1 million for the first time since FY 2012.

The town’s unassigned fund balance increased to $957,790, representing a positive gain of $192,820 from the prior year. This too is in line with the trend of improving from year to year.

After the presentation, Councilman Mitch Radford, the town’s Administration Commissioner, stated that he’d welcome any suggestions from the auditors on ways to keep the town’s finances in order.

“There should always be something we can improve,” he said, indicating a commitment to keep the town on their current path of positive gains after years of financial hardship.