Unofficial demonstration dashboard

City of Calhoun Pulse

The finances of the City of Calhoun, Georgia — the municipal government, county seat of Gordon County. Gordon County is a separate government and none of its figures appear here. Every audited figure below comes from the city’s FY2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report; the only budget material is the city’s FY2026 proposed budget presentation, shown separately and tagged as proposed throughout.

Fiscal year ends: June 30 Population: 19,514 (calendar 2024, Exhibit XXVI of the ACFR — unaudited statistical section) Audit: R. M. Dobbs & Company, CPAs — unmodified (“clean”) opinions

Total net position FY2024 Audited

$386,502,767

Primary government, June 30, 2024 — up $26,704,933 during FY2024 from $359,797,834. Governmental $180,756,212 · Business-type $205,746,555.

Governmental fund balances FY2024 Audited

$54,229,649

All governmental funds combined, June 30, 2024. Of this, $26,374,695 is restricted and $4,049,293 committed — only $23,571,004 is unassigned.

General Fund balance FY2024 Audited

$27,844,087

Unassigned portion: $23,571,004 — equal to 129% of FY2024 General Fund expenditures, per the ACFR’s MD&A.

Bonded + notes debt (principal) FY2024 Audited

$30,583,187

Mostly school general obligation bonds ($20,905,000) repaid from E-SPLOST, plus water/sewer revenue bonds ($1,910,000) and GEFA notes ($7,768,187). This is debt principal only — not total obligations.

Net pension liability FY2024 Audited

$4,871,976

Primary government, both pension plans combined. A long-term obligation — not bonded debt.

OPEB liability — primary government FY2024 Audited

The City has no other postemployment benefit obligation (ACFR Note 3-I). The OPEB liability printed in the ACFR belongs solely to the Calhoun School District component unit, a separate government, and is excluded here.

Overall budget total FY2026 Proposed

$115,511,122

As printed on the closing slide of the city’s FY2026 budget presentation. Proposed only — no adopted FY2026 budget book has been published. See the disclosure in the FY2026 section: the presentation’s own fund slides sum to $8,000,000 more than this total.

Net position FY2024 Audited

Government-wide basis (accrual) · Statement of Net Position, June 30, 2024

Component	Governmental	Business-type	Total primary gov’t
Net investment in capital assets	$128,016,895	$99,198,075	$227,214,970
Restricted	$26,591,337	$0	$26,591,337
Unrestricted	$26,147,980	$106,548,480	$132,696,460
Total net position	$180,756,212	$205,746,555	$386,502,767

Governmental restricted net position by purpose: debt service $14,871,030; capital projects $8,080,765; housing and development $2,806,361; culture and recreation $509,840; education $216,642; public safety $106,699. Capital assets, net of depreciation, total $258,172,799 (governmental $149,296,537; business-type $108,876,262), and total primary-government liabilities are $71,731,960.

A utility-heavy city: business-type net position ($205,746,555) exceeds governmental net position ($180,756,212) because Calhoun runs electric, water/sewer, telecommunications, golf, and solid waste utilities. The $106,548,480 of unrestricted business-type net position is utility money, not a general government reserve.

Source: City of Calhoun, Georgia Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2024 (Statement of Net Position, p. 30) — EMMA / MSRB (PDF)

Governmental revenues by source FY2024 Audited

Governmental funds basis (modified accrual) · All governmental funds, year ended June 30, 2024

Source	Amount
Intergovernmental	$17,149,026
Taxes — other (franchise, insurance premium, excise and other)	$6,958,532
Sales tax	$5,329,951
Property tax	$3,852,994
Investment earnings	$1,764,915
Licenses and permits	$624,857
Charges for services	$499,243
Fines and forfeitures	$324,874
Miscellaneous	$24,914
Contributions	$6,499
Total revenues	$36,535,805

Most intergovernmental revenue is not general operating revenue: $6,840,512 of the intergovernmental total sits in the School Bonds Debt Service Fund (E-SPLOST-related) and $6,487,365 in the 2018 SPLOST Fund — school- and SPLOST-restricted money. General Fund revenues alone were $18,617,903.

Source: City of Calhoun FY2024 ACFR (Governmental Funds Statement of Revenues, Expenditures and Changes in Fund Balances, p. 36) — EMMA / MSRB (PDF)

Governmental expenditures by function FY2024 Audited

Governmental funds basis (modified accrual) · All governmental funds, year ended June 30, 2024

Function	Amount
Public safety (current)	$11,399,134
Capital outlay	$7,418,654
Principal retirement (debt service)	$5,115,000
Public works (current)	$3,482,527
General government (current)	$2,535,477
Housing and economic development (current)	$2,410,291
Culture and recreation (current)	$1,857,971
Interest and fiscal charges	$1,055,331
Judicial (current)	$404,974
Health and welfare (current)	$71,461
Total expenditures	$35,750,820

Revenues exceeded expenditures by $784,985; with net other financing sources of $2,749,405, governmental fund balances rose $3,534,390 during FY2024, from $50,695,259 to $54,229,649. General Fund expenditures alone were $18,270,456.

Source: City of Calhoun FY2024 ACFR (p. 36) — EMMA / MSRB (PDF)

Governmental activities — government-wide FY2024 Audited

Government-wide basis (accrual) · Statement of Activities, year ended June 30, 2024. These totals differ from the fund-basis tables above by design — see the basis note below.

Revenues

Source	Amount
Taxes (total)	$16,118,764
Operating grants and contributions	$10,594,503
Capital grants and contributions	$9,358,518
Charges for services, sales and fines	$1,364,048
Other general revenues	$1,480,924
Total governmental revenues	$38,916,757

Taxes on the accrual basis: property $3,830,281; sales $5,329,951; franchise $3,565,119; insurance premium $1,588,625; other $1,804,788. Other general revenues: investment earnings $1,190,850; gain on disposal of capital assets $201,762; unrestricted intergovernmental $63,398; miscellaneous $24,914.

Expenses by function

Function	Expenses
Public safety	$11,402,118
Education	$7,160,370
Housing and economic development	$2,461,124
General government	$2,039,751
Culture and recreation	$1,627,738
Public works	$1,143,486
Interest	$979,060
Judicial	$361,922
Health and welfare	$73,526
Total governmental expenses	$27,249,095

After program revenues, governmental activities showed net expense of $5,932,026; general revenues of $17,599,688 plus transfers in of $2,532,758 produced a $14,200,420 increase in governmental net position, from $166,555,792 to $180,756,212.

About the “Education” function: education here is a City governmental function — it carries the City’s school-bond debt-service activity. Its program revenues ($7,460,242 of operating grants, E-SPLOST) exceed its expenses, for net revenue of +$299,872 in the audited statements. It is not the Calhoun School District component unit, which is excluded from this page entirely. Note also that the ACFR’s MD&A narrative describes this function as showing an apparent $3.5 million net expense; the audited statements report net revenue of $299,872, and this page uses the statements’ figure.

Two accounting bases — do not mix them: fund-basis (modified accrual) and government-wide (accrual) totals differ by design. Property tax is $3,852,994 on the fund basis vs $3,830,281 government-wide, and government-wide public works ($1,143,486) is far smaller than the fund-basis public works and capital outlay lines because SPLOST capital spending is capitalized on the accrual basis. Every table on this page carries its basis label.

Source: City of Calhoun FY2024 ACFR (Statement of Activities, p. 31; MD&A) — EMMA / MSRB (PDF)

Business-type activities — the city’s utilities FY2024 Audited

Government-wide basis (accrual) · Statement of Activities, year ended June 30, 2024

Activity	Expenses	Charges for services	Net revenue
Electric system	$37,119,668	$41,042,022	$3,922,354
Water and sewerage system	$19,567,870	$25,359,649	$5,852,736
Telecommunications	$1,295,159	$1,429,416	$134,257
Fields Ferry Golf Course	$1,114,974	$1,280,462	$265,488
Solid waste	$1,016,849	$1,024,944	$8,095
Total business-type	$60,114,520	$70,136,493	$10,182,930

Total business-type revenues were $75,151,791 — charges for services plus operating grants of $160,957 and general revenues of $4,854,341 (investment earnings $4,283,050; gain on disposal $35,635; miscellaneous $535,656). After transfers out of $2,532,758, business-type net position rose $12,504,513, from $193,242,042 to $205,746,555. These are utility operations, not general government revenue available for general purposes.

At the proprietary-fund level of presentation (ACFR pp. 40–41), the enterprise funds report operating revenues of $70,659,547, operating expenses of $60,333,358, and operating income of $10,326,189, with ending net position of $203,425,482 (Electric $70,063,469; Water & Sewerage $123,816,175; nonmajor $9,545,838). The ACFR’s printed reconciliation adds the internal service fund’s net position of $2,321,073 to reach the government-wide business-type total of $205,746,555 — a presentation difference, not an error.

Source: City of Calhoun FY2024 ACFR (Statement of Activities, p. 31; Proprietary Funds statements, pp. 40–41) — EMMA / MSRB (PDF)

Fund balances by fund FY2024 Audited

Governmental funds basis · Governmental Funds Balance Sheet, June 30, 2024

Fund	Fund balance
General Fund	$27,844,087
School Bonds Debt Service Fund (a City fund)	$14,871,030
2018 SPLOST Capital Project Fund	$10,051,486
Nonmajor governmental funds (combined)	$1,462,039
Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund	$1,007
School SPLOST Capital Project Fund	$0
Total governmental fund balances	$54,229,649

What the balances are made of

Classification — total governmental funds	Amount
Restricted — debt service	$14,871,030
Restricted — capital projects	$8,080,765
Restricted — program purposes (housing and development $2,806,361; culture and recreation $509,840; public safety $106,699)	$3,422,900
Restricted — total	$26,374,695
Unassigned (General Fund)	$23,571,004
Committed — working capital / contingencies	$4,049,293
Nonspendable (prepaid items)	$234,657
Total	$54,229,649

General Fund composition: nonspendable $223,790 + committed $4,049,293 + unassigned $23,571,004 = $27,844,087. Per the MD&A, unassigned fund balance equals 129% of General Fund expenditures, and unassigned plus committed equals 151%.

A deficit inside the totals: the nonmajor 2024 SPLOST Fund carries a deficit fund balance of −$1,970,721 (ACFR Note 3-K), included within the nonmajor column and within restricted — capital projects above. It was caused by an internal loan from the General Fund, to be eliminated when the loan is repaid in the following year.

School money runs through City funds — but the school district is not the City: the City issues general obligation bonds for school facilities and repays them from E-SPLOST through the City’s own School Bonds Debt Service Fund (balance $14,871,030, all restricted for debt service) and School SPLOST Capital Project Fund. Those City funds are included in the City totals as printed. The Calhoun School District itself is a discretely presented component unit — a separate government — and its figures are excluded from this page.

Source: City of Calhoun FY2024 ACFR (Governmental Funds Balance Sheet, p. 34; Note 3-K) — EMMA / MSRB (PDF)

Debt & other obligations FY2024 Audited

June 30, 2024 · Debt principal is shown separately from other long-term obligations — the two are not the same thing.

Bonded + notes debt — principal outstanding

Debt	Principal
General obligation school bonds — 2011 issue ($21,000,000 at 5.12%, matures Sep 2025) and 2012 issue ($12,000,000 at 4.0%, matures Sep 2032); repaid by the School Bonds Debt Service Fund from E-SPLOST	$20,905,000
Notes payable — State Revolving Loan Fund / GEFA loans (water & sewer)	$7,768,187
Revenue bonds — Water & Sewerage Series 2012 + 2016	$1,910,000
Total bonded + notes debt (principal)	$30,583,187

On the Statement of Net Position the GO bonds are carried at $21,279,642 (current $5,365,000 + long-term $15,914,642); the $374,642 difference from principal is unamortized premium and deferred bond-related items per Note 3-H — explained in the ACFR, not an error.

Other long-term obligations — not debt

Obligation	Amount
Net pension liability — primary government (GMA/GMEBS defined-benefit plan $4,589,093 + City Charter pay-as-you-go plan $282,882)	$4,871,976
Compensated absences (governmental $406,087 per Note 3-H + business-type $380,035)	$786,122
Claims payable (governmental)	$48,801
Landfill post-closure care payable (solid waste fund; the City’s industrial landfill closed in 1992)	$30,454
Leases payable — primary government	$0
OPEB — primary government (Note 3-I: “The City has no other postemployment benefit obligation”)	$0

The Electric utility also carries a long-term regulatory liability of $21,804,660 (payable from restricted assets) and customer deposits of $3,170,044 within current payable from restricted assets of $3,181,321 — utility regulatory and deposit liabilities, not bonded debt, and not included in any debt total here. Total long-term liabilities are $51,587,244 (governmental $18,999,236 + business-type $32,588,008) and total liabilities $71,731,960.

Disclosure — a $59,999 conflict inside the audit: the audit’s balance sheet and its long-term-debt note differ by $59,999 on governmental compensated absences ($466,086 vs $406,087); both figures are as printed in the FY2024 ACFR. The obligations table above uses the Note 3-H figure of $406,087. (Two $1 rounding differences also appear in the ACFR — the plan notes’ pension liabilities sum to $4,871,975 vs the statement’s $4,871,976, and the notes-payable loan detail sums to $7,768,188 vs the statements’ $7,768,187; this page uses the statement figures.)

Source: City of Calhoun FY2024 ACFR (Statement of Net Position, p. 30; Note 3-H, pp. 64–67; Note 3-I, p. 68) — EMMA / MSRB (PDF)

Budget vs. actual — as printed in the ACFR FY2024 Audited

GAAP-basis budgetary comparisons from the audited ACFR itself, labeled exactly as the ACFR presents them (“Budget and Actual”). These schedules — and the FY2026 proposed presentation below — are the only budget figures on this page; no adopted budget book is published by the City.

General Fund

General Fund	Original budget	Final budget	Actual	Variance vs final
Total revenues	$16,009,618	$18,420,381	$18,617,903	+$197,522
Total expenditures	$21,877,875	$22,150,693	$18,270,456	+$3,880,237 (under)
Net change in fund balance	$0	$0	+$3,160,828	+$3,160,828
Fund balance, June 30 (actual)	—	—	$27,844,087	—

Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund

CSLFRF	Original budget	Final budget	Actual
Revenues (intergovernmental)	$0	$1,450,241	$1,450,241
Expenditures (general government)	$0	$988,003	$988,003
Transfer out	—	—	$462,238
Ending fund balance	—	—	$1,007

Source: City of Calhoun FY2024 ACFR (Budget and Actual schedules, pp. 38–39) — EMMA / MSRB (PDF)

FY2026 budget presentation FY2026 Proposed

Everything in this section comes from the City’s 2025-2026 Budget — General Budget Presentation FY26 slide deck. It is a summary presentation of a proposed budget — not an adopted budget book, and no adopted FY2026 budget book was found. Every figure carries the FY2026 Proposed tag.

Fiscal Year 2026 Overall Proposed Budget Total (as printed) FY2026 Proposed

$115,511,122

The deck’s closing slide also prints an FY2025 overall budget total of $109,818,560 (as printed) and labels the increase “5.0%”; computed from the deck’s own printed totals, the increase is 5.18%.

Required disclosure — the presentation does not foot to its own total: the budget presentation’s fund slides sum to $123,511,122 — exactly $8,000,000 more than the $115,511,122 overall proposed total printed in the same presentation. Both figures are shown as printed; the City has not published a reconciliation. Each individual slide foots internally; the failure is only between the slides and the overall total.

General Fund proposed expenses by function (deck slide 10) FY2026 Proposed

Function	Proposed amount	Printed %
Police	$6,976,997	26%
Public Works	$5,964,089	23%
Fire	$5,584,400	21%
Transfers	$3,747,309	14%
General Admin	$2,179,946	8%
Community Development	$1,259,624	5%
Court Services	$404,981	2%
Community Services	$293,933	1%
Total (as printed on the slide)	$26,411,279	100%

General Fund proposed revenues (deck slide 5, pie chart) FY2026 Proposed

Source	Printed slice	Printed %
Sales Tax	$5,200,000	25%
Property Tax / TAVT	$4,207,900	20%
Excise Taxes	$3,406,000	16%
Rents & Royalties	$3,079,784	15%
Franchise	$2,385,855	11%
Intergovernmental	$1,555,985	7%
Licenses & Permits	$673,700	3%
Charges for Services	$450,876	2%
Municipal Court	$238,850	1%
Sum of the deck’s printed slices (the deck prints no revenue total)	$21,198,950	100%

The deck’s two General Fund pies do not reconcile: the revenue pie’s printed slices sum to an implied $21,198,950, while the expense pie prints a total of $26,411,279 (which itself includes $3,747,309 of transfers out) — a gap of $5,212,329 that the deck does not explain; it shows no transfers-in or appropriated-fund-balance slice that would close it. The deck is therefore not presented here as a balanced General Fund budget; the two pies are shown separately, as printed.

Utility & internal-service proposed expenses (deck slide 14) FY2026 Proposed

Fund	Proposed amount	Printed %
Electric	$43,253,304	51%
Water	$25,037,278	29%
Sewer	$10,264,350	12%
Internal Service	$4,752,868	6%
Telecommunications	$1,536,280	2%
Total (as printed on the slide)	$84,844,080	100%

“Revenue Funds – Proprietary Funds” (deck slide 11) FY2026 Proposed

Amounts as printed on the slide, which gives no printed total and does not state whether these are revenues or budgets. They are shown individually, as printed:

Fund	Amount as printed
Recreation Fund	$8,870,499
Golf Fund	$1,281,050
Solid Waste Fund	$1,104,214
Hotel/Motel Fund	$1,000,000

Disclosure (applies to the slide-11 amounts above): the budget presentation’s fund slides sum to $123,511,122 — $8,000,000 more than the $115,511,122 overall proposed total printed in the same presentation. Both figures are shown as printed; the City has not published a reconciliation. These four amounts are part of that unreconciled sum.

Source: City of Calhoun 2025-2026 Budget — General Budget Presentation FY26 (proposed budget presentation, City of Calhoun) — cityofcalhoun-ga.com (PDF)

Caveats & disclosures

June 30 fiscal year-end. Audited figures are FY2024 (July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024). They are not current-year or “2024 budget” figures. The only FY2026 material on this page is the proposed presentation above.
The newest ACFR lives on EMMA, not the city website. The FY2024 ACFR is hosted on EMMA (MSRB); the city website’s newest posted ACFR is FY2023. All audited-figure citations on this page link to the EMMA copy.
No adopted budget book is published. No adopted FY2026 (or other) budget book was found. The budget side of this dashboard is proposed-only presentation material plus the ACFR’s own audited budget-vs-actual schedules. No deck figure is labeled “adopted” or “final” anywhere on this page.
Two accounting bases coexist. Fund-basis (modified accrual) and government-wide (accrual) totals differ by design; each table and chart carries its basis label, and figures are never summed or compared across bases without it.
The school district is a separate government. The Calhoun School District is a discretely presented component unit of the City for reporting purposes only. Its figures — including its OPEB liability and its deficit net position — are not City figures and do not appear on this page. The City’s own School Bonds Debt Service Fund and School SPLOST Capital Project Fund are City funds and are included, as labeled.
Population is printed two ways in the ACFR. This page uses 19,514 (Exhibit XXVI, unaudited statistical section, calendar 2024). The ACFR’s letter of transmittal instead describes a residential population of approximately 18,900 and a service delivery population of approximately 59,757; those figures are not blended with or substituted for the Exhibit XXVI figure.
Verification: every figure on this page was arithmetically cross-checked against its source document — 142 checks, 139 passing. The three failures are inconsistencies inside the source documents themselves (the $59,999 compensated-absences conflict, a $1 pension rounding difference, and the FY2026 deck’s $8,000,000 footing gap), each disclosed where it occurs.