Wake Forest earns another favorable audit report

Wednesday, December 6, 2023 - 9:44am

The Board of Commissioners (BOC) recently received the results of an independent audit report from Cherry Bekaert LLP for the period July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023. In addition to not revealing any problems, the report acknowledged that the Town is “in compliance” with all its financial policies and operating with strong internal controls in place.

The report also included several financial performance highlights for Wake Forest which enjoys a triple A bond rating by all three national rating agencies:

  • Net change in the Town’s fund balance resulted in an increase of $5.2 million in the general fund.

  • Cash balances totaled $61.5 million, significantly higher than the $49.9 million in 2022. Along with above mentioned increase, this also includes American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds received by the Town.

  • Wake Forest collected 99.82% of its property taxes - higher than the statewide average rate of 99.13%.

  • The Town’s property tax base was $7.5 billion on June 30, 2023, compared to $7.1 billion at the same time last year.

  • Property tax collections were $36.9 million - $1.5 million more than last year.

  • The electric fund’s change in net position increased $515,000.

  • Wake Forest has a total outstanding debt of $39 million, which is substantially less than the legal debt margin of $486 million. Also, the percentage of the debt compared to the tax valuation is 1.4753%, considerably less than the Town’s policy of 2% or the state’s statute which is 8%.

To view the 2022-23 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, visit bit.ly/WFAnnualComprehensiveFinancialReport. For more information on the 2022-23 audit report, contact Finance Director Samantha Sanchez at 919-435-9480 or [email protected].