The city of Champaign finished in the black again this fiscal year, according to its annual financial report released last week.

The report showed that Champaign’s $103.5 million in revenue exceeded its expenses of $103.4 million and suggested this was because of an increase in sales and income tax revenues. The general fund balance, which supports day-to-day operations, including police, fire and public works, increased by $2.9 million.

Karen Foster, council member at-large, said the surplus is a result of many budget cuts made in the past four years. 

“It is huge in the fact that we are not facing the cuts that we’ve been facing the last few years,” Foster said. “We have a little bit of breathing room, and that’s a good thing.” 

Spending cuts made for fiscal year 2012, which ended June 30, included a reduction in city employment positions and a decrease in infrastructure spending, finance director Richard Schnuer said. 

“(The surplus) really reflects two things,” he announced to the council during the Jan. 8 study session. “Revenues did grow, and all of the difficult cutting of the budget the prior year on the part of the city council increased our fund balance.” 

The surplus funds are projected to transfer to smaller fund accounts during the 2013 fiscal year to complete various projects for the city, including a $250,000 transfer to the library’s capital fund to replace old carpeting and reupholster furniture.    

The city’s auditing company, Martin Hood Friese & Associates LLC, gave the report a “clean opinion,” finding it to be presented “fairly, in all material respects” and in compliance with U.S. federal accounting guidelines. Although the auditor’s report did not call for action from the council and there were no major changes that needed to be made, this has not always been the case, Foster said. 

“We are happy that there were no issues between the auditor and the finance department,” Foster said. “Sometimes in the past, there have been a few corrections or tweaks that our finance department needs to make concerning auditing practices. But this time, they had a clean bill.”

Emma can be reached at [email protected].