Hiram put another $266,818 into General Fund reserves in Fiscal Year 2008-2009, bringing the balance to $9,145,347.

“You’re in real good financial shape,” auditor Lloyd Williamson told the City Council Jan. 12. The city spent $574,596 in special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) capital projects and brought in $517,750 from SPLOST. Despite the $56,846 SPLOST “deficit” in 2009, $1,246,813 remained in the SPLOST account June 30, bringing total government funds to $10,336,959.

The FY09 surplus includes $110,000 more in revenues than budgeted and $156,312 less in expenditures. The self-supporting Sanitation Fund finished $8,755 in the red, while the Water Fund ended the fiscal year with a balance of $457,594. Williamson noted that Hiram’s monthly sanitation fee of $8 is considerably less than the $12 to $14 average.

Williamson said new state pronouncements on internal controls and in other areas are forthcoming and recommended the council establish an audit committee.

Mayor Carmen Rollins said the city is phasing in accounting software modules, buying, installing and providing training on the software. The city is ordering software necessary to log fixed assets, and she said “that should finish us.”

Williamson recommended seeking a zero General Fund balance; the city now budgets revenues and expenditures conservatively and for years has built its reserves with the surplus. Rollins said the city collects no property taxes and would run afoul of the Environmental Protection Division if Hiram returned the surplus through cuts in water bills. The EPD “wants us to charge enough” so people don’t waste water, she said.

Rollins added that the city gave away water conservation kits last year.

The mayor said Hiram will soon be negotiating with Paulding County on a new SPLOST, determining what would be the city’s share if voters approve it on a July or November ballot. “We’re still collecting the current SPLOST,” she said.