Burnet spotlighted for financial reporting
The city of Burnet recently received the highest recognition for governmental accounting, the latest in a string of awards from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada. The Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting was for the city’s comprehensive financial report for the 2022-23 fiscal year.
“(The city’s finance team has) received this award for at least six or seven years in a row,” Burnet City Manager David Vaughn told DailyTrib.com. “Our Director of Finance (Patricia Langford) does an amazing job for us. She works hard and puts in as many hours—if not more—than anyone working for the city.”
Burnet’s annual report, submitted in 2023, was thoroughly scrutinized by a third-party special review committee with the GFOA, who ultimately gave their seal of approval for the city exceeding the standards of generally accepted accounting principles, an international guideline for the practice.
“We are getting both the budget award and the combined annual financial report award and both demonstrate (Langford) is doing everything at an incredibly high level when it comes to reporting our budget and audit,” Vaughn said.
In addition, Burnet’s strong financial management has earned it a solid bond rating, which is essential when the city borrows money for community projects.
“Every time we go out and borrow money, we have to get a bond rating, and we score incredibly high for a community of our size,” Vaughn said. “The only thing holding us back from going even higher is the size of our tax base. But the reason we score as high as we do is because of our management, which is a reflection of the direction and the great job (Langford) does.”
While the financial reporting award does not explicitly guarantee Burnet’s fiscal health, it acknowledges the city has kept thorough records of its accounting.
“The goal of the program is not to assess the financial health of participating governments, but rather to ensure that users of their financial statements have the information they need to do so themselves,” reads a GFOA statement about the award.