Efficient Government in The Record

Efficient Government

Reserves up. Debt down.

From 2022 to 2025, audited reserves increased by $12.4 million, or 19.4%, while long-term debt fell by $2.7 million, or 27.5%.

2010-2025 / millions of dollars · Millions of dollars

$76.7m2025 · Reserves
$0m$41m$82m201020172025
  • Reserves$76.7m
  • Long-term debt$7.1m
Sources & methods

These totals do not show which reserves are restricted, when projects need the money or whether returns will keep up with construction costs.

YearReservesLong-term debt
2010$15.7M$10.5M
2011$14.8M$7.42M
2012$15.2M$6.09M
2013$12.8M$4.81M
2014$14.2M$3.60M
2015$12.7M$2.70M
2016$34.0M$2.03M
2017$41.9M$4.54M
2018$51.3M$8.32M
2019$51.7M$12.5M
2020$58.0M$11.7M
2021$63.4M$10.7M
2022$64.3M$9.81M
2023$74.8M$8.86M
2024$72.9M$7.99M
2025$76.7M$7.11M

Method notes

  • Reserves combine statutory and non-statutory reserves and exclude unappropriated operating surplus.
  • The audited statements use narrower revenue categories. This page uses tax in the broad accountability sense: money required from the public or transferred from another government's taxpayers.
  • The City's reserve policy says reserves should stabilize tax levies, handle emergencies, finance new assets, safeguard existing assets and balance costs between current and future taxpayers.
  • Reserves and debt do not make bad infrastructure good. First ask whether it is needed and worth the cost. Then decide whether to collect the taxes early or later.
  • If construction costs rise faster than investment returns while money waits, the reserve loses purchasing power.
  • The 2022 figure is as restated in the 2023 audited statements for the asset-retirement-obligation accounting standard, so both years are on the same basis.
  • The annual series uses the latest published comparative for each year where a later annual report restated the earlier figure.

What should be measured next: Before building anything, show that it is needed, that the benefits are worth the cost, and that it will be purchased as efficiently as possible. Then decide whether to collect the tax early into reserves or later through debt.