Text · page 24 of 115
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The statement of activities presents information showing how the Town’s net position changed during the most recent fiscal year. All changes in net position are reported as soon as the underlying event giving rise to the change occurs, regardless of the timing of related cash flows. Thus, revenues and expenses are reported in this statement for some items that will result in cash flows in future fiscal periods (e.g., earned but unused vacation leave). Both of the government-wide financial statements distinguish functions of the Town that are principally supported by taxes and intergovernmental revenues (governmental activities) from other functions that are intended to recover all, or a significant portion of their costs through user fees and charges (business-type activities). The governmental activities of the Town include general government support, public safety, health, transportation, economic assistance and opportunity, culture and recreation, home and community services and unallocated interest and other fiscal charges. The Town does not engage in any business-type activities. The government-wide financial statements can be found on pages 10-11 of this report. Fund financial statements—A fund is a grouping of related accounts that is used to maintain control over resources that have been segregated for specific activities or objectives. The Town, like other state and local governments, uses fund accounting to ensure and demonstrate compliance with finance-related legal requirements. All of the funds of the Town can be classified as governmental funds. Governmental funds—Governmental funds are used to account for essentially the same functions reported as governmental activities in the government-wide financial statements. However, unlike the government-wide financial statements, governmental fund financial statements focus on near-term inflows and outflows of spendable resources, as well as on balances of spendable resources available at the end of the fiscal year. Such information may be useful in evaluating a government’s near-term financing requirements. Because the focus of governmental funds is narrower than that of the government-wide financial statements, it is useful to compare the information presented for governmental funds with similar information presented for governmental activities in the government-wide financial statements. By doing so, readers may better understand the long-term impact of the government’s near-term financing decisions. Both the governmental funds’ balance sheet and the governmental funds’ statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in funds’ balances provide a reconciliation to facilitate this comparison between governmental funds and governmental activities. The Town maintains eight individual governmental funds. Information is presented separately in the governmental fund balance sheet and in the governmental fund statements of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balances for the General Fund, Highway—Town Wide Fund, Fire Protection Fund, Water Fund, Garbage and Refuse Fund, and the Capital Projects Fund, all of which are considered to be major funds. Data from the other two governmental funds are combined into a single, aggregated presentation. Individual fund data for each of these nonmajor governmental funds is presented in the form of combining statements in the Supplementary Information section of this report. The basic governmental fund financial statements can be found on pages 12-15 of this report. Fiduciary funds—Fiduciary funds are used to account for resources held for the benefit of parties outside the government. Fiduciary funds are not reflected in the government-wide financial statements because the resources are not available to support the Town’s own programs. The Town maintains one fiduciary fund, the Custodial Fund. The fiduciary fund statements can be found on pages 16-17 of this report. -2-