Gainesville receives clean audit for Fiscal Year 2025; finances are accurate and transparent
Press release from the City of Gainesville
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – For the third year in a row, the City of Gainesville has received a clean financial audit from external auditor Purvis, Gray & Company. The City’s Department of Financial Services completed the Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) on schedule with no findings, marking another year of accurate, transparent financial reporting and continued progress in strengthening the City’s financial foundation.
This three-year milestone is an important accomplishment for the City, which between 2018 and 2022 struggled with reporting challenges and delays. City leaders responded by strategically hiring experienced staff to support and enhance the Department of Financial Services while simultaneously refining internal processes and improving coordination across departments. These changes have resulted in a pattern of reporting that now consistently meets the highest governmental standards.
“This is the pattern we wished to achieve, and I think we’re finally there,” said Department of Financial Services Director Dennis Nguyen. “Over the past three years, our team has focused on strong oversight and accountability in our financial practices, and we’re seeing the results of that work as we continue to receive, year after year, these clean independent audits.”
Annual audits are an important measure of a city’s performance. They provide an objective, third-party review of how the organization tracks, spends, and safeguards its resources. For local governments, this level of scrutiny is a critical part of responsible financial management. It helps identify opportunities for improvement, reinforces strong operational practices, and supports informed decision-making by city leaders as they plan for future investments and community needs.
“Today’s news is the result of collaboration and hard work across all City departments,” said Interim City Manager Andrew Persons. “This independent audit report shows that Gainesville continues to meet the most rigorous standards for managing taxpayer dollars as our city grows and faces new challenges.”
The Fiscal Year 2025 ACFR was presented to the City Audit Committee on March 24 and will be considered by the Gainesville City Commission on March 26, where it is expected to be approved.
The city claims audits are an indication of how they “track, spend, and safeguard” resources and “support informed decision-making.” 😅😂🤣😭
They amend, revise, create new positions, and distribute funds for their projects—but why are the positions and expenditures even needed? Solar trash cans? Give me a break.
“..but why are the positions and expenditures even needed?”
Those are political decisions made by politicians elected by the citizens. Those decisions are not the subject of audits.
They’re still spending at least twice what a city our size should, on inappropriate and wasteful things, like trying to be real estate tycoons. This report only says they are reporting their overspending.
Comparing Lakeland to Gainesville
Both cities have similar total property values (~$11B range), but Gainesville’s exempt base is dominated by the University of Florida campus, UF Health, VA Medical Center, and dozens of nonprofits tied to a major research university — all completely off the tax rolls. Lakeland’s exempt properties are comparatively modest in scale.
The practical consequence: Gainesville has to generate the same level of city services while being unable to tax a massive slice of valuable land. This structural imbalance is a core reason why Gainesville’s millage rate (now 6.73 mills after the recent increase) has to be set considerably higher than Lakeland’s (5.43 mills) — the taxable base is constrained by something no city commission can fix: the presence of a major state university.
And yet both the City and County continue the land purchases and giveaways.
Those are political decisions made by politicians elected by the citizens. Those decisions are not the subject of audits.
Just more proof that politicians often make stupid decisions—in Gainesville, those stupid decisions end up costing everyone, not just the voters who keep electing them.
Maybe the City can implement a “student impact fee” on the college students. They enact fees on practically everything residents do—time for students to pay their share of the impact on our environment.
Doesn’t UF largely provide for it’s own services like police, fire, and utilities?
Yes, but consider that of the 50k students and probably equal number of faculty & staff – many of whom don’t even live in Alachua County ( a few years ago the largest employer for Putnam County was Shands) – they wander off campus and thus impact services our local governments provide.
The pay-off is the very positive impact UF has on our economy, so probably hard to tract exactly local governmental financial impacts.