Time To Learn

It is very obvious that the term "fund balance," is misunderstood by the Council. Their misconceptions are that fund balance is a "savings account," an amount of surplus cash, or in less kind terms, a "slush fund." The fact of the matter is that a fund balance is nothing more than an accounting construct. The fund balance is the difference between the city’s fund’s current assets—cash, short-term investments, inventories, receivables, and other unrestricted assets expected to be available to finance operations in the immediate future—and its current liabilities. A positive difference of current assets over current liabilities gives an indication of the resources immediately available to finance ongoing operations.