06/30/2004-FISCAL AUDITS - Laserfiche WebLink

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' Management's Discussion and Analysis For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30,2004 ' Fund financial statements ' A fund is a grouping of related accounts that is used to maintain control over resources that have been segregated for specific activities or objectives. The Town,like other state and local governments,uses fund accounting to ensure and demonstrate compliance with finance-related legal requirements. All of the funds can be divided into the following categories and are described below: ' 1. Governmental funds 2. Fiduciary funds ' Governmental Funds ' Governmental funds are used to account for the same functions reported as governmental activities in the government-wide financial statements. However,unlike the government-wide financial statements, governmental fund financial statements focus on near-term inflows and outflows of expendable resources,as well ' as on balances of expendable resources available at the end of the fiscal year. Such information may be useful in evaluating a government's near-term financing requirements. Because the focus of governmental funds is narrower than that of the government-wide financial statements,it is useful to compare the information presented for governmental funds with similar information presented for governmental activities in the government-wide financial statements. By doing so,readers may better understand the long-term effect of the government's near-term financing decisions. Both the governmental funds balance sheet and the governmental funds statement of revenues,expenditures,and changes in fund balances provide a reconciliation to facilitate this comparison between governmental funds and governmental activities. The Town maintains 272 individual governmental funds. Information is presented separately in the governmental funds balance sheet and in the governmental funds statement of revenues,expenditures,and changes in fund balances for the general,stabilization(special revenue)and landbank(special revenue)funds, each of which are considered to be major funds. Data from the other 269 governmental funds are combined into a. single,aggregated presentation titled nonmajorgoaernmental funds. The Town adopts an annual appropriated budget for the general fund. A budgetary comparison statement has ' been provided to demonstrate compliance with the fiscal year 2004 budget. The basic governmental funds financial statements can be found on pages 14-18 of this report. ' Fiduciary funds ' Fiduciary funds are used to account for resources held for the benefit of parties outside the government. Fiduciary funds are not reflected in the government-wide financial statements because the resources of those funds are not available to support the Towns programs. The accounting used for fiduciary funds is similar to that used for the government-wide financial statements. The basic fiduciary funds financial statement can be found on page 19 of this report. ' Notes to the basic financial statements The notes provide additional information that is essential to a full understanding of the data provided in the . government-wide and fund financial statements. The notes to the financial statements can be found on pages 20- 39 of this report. Town of Mashpee,Massachusetts 5 Required Supplementary Information