Audit shows ambulance service has paid off for La Salle in more ways than one

La Salle city officials heard details from the annual audit Wednesday, including some good news regarding its ambulance service.

Finance director John Duncan said the ambulance service accumulated $45,000 in profit, raising the amount in its fund balance to about $650,000 by the end of the fiscal year.

The city has made the investment of supplying the ambulance service with its own equipment and vehicles, and officials believe it has made a positive difference for the residents of La Salle.

“This has been a very good financial decision the city has made,” Duncan said. “It’s a successful venture, and we did it by improving the level of service that our residents get. They have an ambulance that’s here in their own town that can get to them faster, equipped with our trained personnel.”

Duncan said since forming the La Salle Ambulance, the city has improved its emergency response time while continuing to grow funds that more than pay for the service.

The library was another city facility highlighted in the audit presentation.

Duncan said the library’s fund shows $50,000 in profits for the fiscal year.

One issue that may arise, Duncan said, is that the library receives a yearly donation from the Carus family distributed for the last nearly two decades. This fiscal year the total donations were $178,513. The Carus family donation is slated to be sent to the library for the next two years, meaning that without the sizable donation, the library would begin operating in the red.

“Without the help of that trust and the Carus family, we will have to plan accordingly to make up for that deficit,” Duncan said. “We won’t have to do that for awhile because they have been able to save up their reserves over the years, but if we run the library at the current deficit, we will then eat up that money and go into debt at some point if we don’t come up with a plan.”

Overall, Duncan said the audit process went smoothly, all documents were provided accurately and the independent auditor had no significant findings.

The audit was performed for the fiscal year ending April 30, 2020, so many effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic won’t be fully included in the numbers provided.

According to the front section of the 116-page document, La Salle’s total governmental revenues were more than total governmental expenditures by $751,716 for the year (before operating transfers).

The city’s business-type activities revenues exceeded the expenditures by $1,823,546; however, the city’s general fund ended the year with a deficit fund balance of $2,450,448. Overall, the city ended the year with $3,985,378 in governmental fund balances.

The city’s general fund is supported through various revenue streams, such as taxes, intergovernmental revenues, licenses and permits, fines and miscellaneous. The total amount of revenue for the fiscal year in the general fund amounted to $8,198,507.

Expenditures that come out of this fund also widely vary from general government, police department, fire department, public works and health, among others.

Some of the bigger expenditures that contributed to the almost $2.5 million in general fund deficit include the fire and police pension contributions that equate to nearly $1.5 million in expenses.

The city has continued in its plan to increase the yearly investments to the funds to adhere to state guidelines.

The state of Illinois has pushed the deadline for completely funded pensions back to 2045; however, La Salle has indicated it intends to hold itself to the initial deadline of 2040 to catch up.