Town of Bedford gets positive financial audit

By JEFF MORRIS 

In its 2025 external financial audit, Bedford received the best audit opinion available, and retained its AAA bond rating.

That was the result reported by Alan Kassay, a partner with accounting firm PKF O’Connor Davies LLP, at the Town Board’s July 14 meeting. Kassay said they were able to issue “an unmodified opinion known as a clean opinion. It’s the best opinion you can receive.”

Kassay said he thought it had been 25 years that the town has maintained its AAA bond rating.

“For a small town to be able to do that is pretty good,” he said.

The report highlighted a number of factors that contributed to variances in both revenues and expenditures for the fiscal year, resulting in a favorable balance. Real property taxes were $34,600 lower than budgeted, while other taxes, including interest and penalties on property taxes and tax distributions from the county, were higher than budgeted by $390,978. Safety inspection fees pushed departmental income collections $474,905 higher than budgeted. State aid was $164,790 higher than budgeted, mainly attributable to a large increase in mortgage tax; fines and forfeitures were $129,566 more than budgeted.

At the same time, some major expenditures were below budget. These included $385,254 less in expenses for town board, town justices and central data processing; $342,214 less in public safety expenses due to reductions in spending for departmental personnel; and the largest reduction, $772,383 less than budgeted for employee benefits due to lower projected contributions to health and dental plans.

In Kassay’s report, he noted the town’s general obligation bonds were currently rated AAA/Stable by Standard and Poor’s Global Rating Services and AAA/Stable by Moody’s Investor Services. He attributed both to sound financial management and manageable debt levels.

While he did not identify any material weaknesses or deficiencies in internal controls, Kassay did list a number of items for “consideration” regarding internal control and operations. He recommended that purchase orders be prepared and approved before the ordering of goods or services; that the purpose of a NYC Road Fund Trust with a balance of $21,368 be reviewed, as it had no activity for the year; that the town review all outstanding performance bond deposits, noting there were balances totaling $404,426 over five years old with no activity; and that three outstanding checks totaling just over $3,000 be either reissued or written off. These were all minor deficiencies.

Comptroller’s reaction

Town Comptroller Brian Kenneally followed up with what he said was a higher-level summary than the auditor’s, which he thought would be more relatable to the average resident. He noted the town had also undergone a federal audit, due to having received American Rescue Plan funds, and had a clean audit on that as well.

Kenneally emphasized that the town ended 2025 with very strong reserves. “We’ve been continuously building our reserves up,” he said, and have approximately $18.5 million of fund balance.

The comptroller attributed the good financial situation to some degree of luck, with tax revenues coming in higher than expected while expenditures were under budget, but said the result was mainly due to strong fiscal control.

“It’s not runaway spending where we just keep amending the budget,” he said. 

Kenneally also noted the town cannot count on “luck” with revenues coming in, which is why it’s important to build up a strong reserve: “So when things do decrease and get bad, you don’t have to cut services, because you have an adequate fund balance.”

At the same time they want to have strong reserves, he said, they do not want too much in reserves so that they are holding on to residents’ tax dollars.

“But we’re also lowering taxes by having the right amount of reserves built up, that we don’t have to borrow,” Kenneally said.

He pointed out that on $40 million in debt, with a AAA rating, “if we’re getting a half percent cheaper, a percent cheaper on $40 million, that’s a huge annual savings on our debt service expense.”