Griffin City Pulse

The fund-balance policy, and the strain on it

The city's GASB 54 fund-balance policy does not set a minimum reserve. It states that the Board will consider amending the policy to include a minimum unassigned fund balance of “(% TO BE DETERMINED)” of the subsequent year's budgeted expenditures — in other words, no minimum percentage has been adopted. (Source: City of Griffin FY2026–27 adopted budget, Policies appendix, via OpenGov.)

What the audited statements do say: the General Fund balance at June 30, 2025 was $20,387,283 (FY2025 ACFR). The FY27 budget draws $11.6 million from that balance, and staff warned commissioners about structural deficits and the sustainability of the enterprise funds.

For scale: audited enterprise operations generated $23.85M in net operating income in FY2024 — Water/Wastewater $13.31M, Electric $9.01M, Solid Waste $1.06M — yet Solid Waste still lands more than $1.5M short in FY27 and needs a General Fund subsidy.

For the General Fund's scale: audited revenues were $20.58M in FY2020. A year later, the FY2021 final budget set General Fund expenditures at $31.2M ($31,236,055) — a spending plan, not a revenue figure (FY2021 ACFR). The FY27 reserve draw is the story to watch this year.