Cabarrus County Comprehensive Annual Financial Report

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Government-Wide Financial Analysis While total net assets are often considered a useful indicator of a government’s financial position, it does not adequately reflect the County’s position. As noted above the liabilities of Cabarrus County exceeded the assets by $61,446,567 at June 30, 2012. In accordance with the North Carolina General Statutes, the County is the issuer and payer of debt for capital purposes for the Cabarrus County Schools, Kannapolis City Schools and the Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. This debt, which totals $285,580,925 at June 30, 2012 and totaled $306,883,150 at June 30, 2011, is recorded in long-term liabilities with no offsetting capital assets recorded, as the assets are owned by the agencies. The agencies use the debt proceeds to acquire or construct capital assets. The effect of this accounting distorts net assets of the County, creating a large deficit in unrestricted net assets. Net Assets of $127,581,945 at June 30, 2012 and $115,035,476 at June 30, 2011 are invested in capital assets, net of any related outstanding debt of those assets. Capital assets include land, buildings, vehicles, equipment and other machinery used in providing services to residents. Also, net assets of $32,502,357 at June 30, 2012 and $46,892,224 at June 30, 2011 are reserved by law for specific purposes. The net decrease in the deficit unrestricted net assets, resulted from the refunding of debt and the early pay off of $11,122,572 in installment financing. Net assets do not present the County’s position regarding spending, this amount is presented in the governmental funds statements. Several particular aspects of the County’s financial operations positively influenced the total unrestricted governmental net assets: Continued low cost of debt due to the County’s high bond rating and the prevailing low interest rate environment. General Fund County revenues at June 30, 2012 were $9,353,305 over budget. This is primarily due to higher than expected sales tax collections and ambulance fee collections. The General Fund received $3,267,346 in other financing sources from several capital project funds for projects that were completed during the year and had remaining unspent funds. 18