Lakewood's General Fund Is Growing. The Rest of the Story

TL;DR

The Village President recently shared a chart in a Facebook group restricted to Village residents showing impressive growth in Lakewood's General Fund. Unfortunately, the FY2026 number on his chart is $548,044 higher than the amount reported in the Village's audit, which he cites as his source (Audit FY2026, p. 21).

But there's a bigger problem with the story the chart tells. Much of the General Fund's reported growth comes from money owed to it by other Village funds. I call these IOUs. They're legitimate accounting assets, but they're not the same as cash in the bank.

When we remove those IOUs from the balances in both periods, the General Fund actually grew at a slightly slower annual rate over the last five years than it did during the previous ten.

The General Fund has grown. Just not in the way, or at the rate, the chart would lead residents to believe.

What's the Issue?

The President's chart asks, "What changed in the Spring of 2021?" and claims the General Fund grew 4.3 times more in the last five years than it did in the previous ten (President's Facebook chart, November 13, 2026).

That's an impressive claim, and I can understand why someone would want to celebrate it. Unfortunately, the chart ignores some important information about where that growth came from.

The General Fund is only one part of the Village's finances. Looking at that balance alone is a little like looking at your checking account and declaring your household financially healthy without considering the bills you've already scheduled to pay. You might have $5,000 in the account, but if your mortgage, car payment, and credit card bills are coming out tomorrow, you probably shouldn't go shopping for a new television today.

Remember when we used to teach kids to balance their checkbooks? (For anyone who has never written a check, this was an actual life skill.) You started with the bank balance, subtracted the outstanding payments, and figured out how much money you really had available. The bank balance wasn't wrong. It just wasn't the whole story.

Village finances are more complicated than a household checking account, but the principle is worth remembering. As elected officials, we're responsible for overseeing the finances of the entire Village, not just the fund with the most encouraging numbers. So I went back through the audits to see what they actually tell us.

What's the Truth?

First, there's a number that doesn't match.

The President's chart shows a FY2026 General Fund balance of $3,097,843. The Village's audited financial statements report $2,549,799 (Audit FY2026, p. 21). That's a difference of $548,044, which is a pretty substantial discrepancy when you're using the chart to demonstrate how much the fund has grown.

I don't know where the higher number came from. The chart cites the Village's Annual Financial Reports, but neither version of the FY2026 audit reports that figure as the General Fund's ending balance. If there's another document supporting it, I'd welcome seeing it.

Using the audited numbers, the General Fund grew $914,920 between FY2021 and FY2026 (Audit FY2021, p. 20; Audit FY2026, p. 21), rather than the $1,462,964 shown on the chart. That's still a meaningful increase, and I'm not suggesting otherwise. But if we're going to compare financial performance over time, we should at least start with the numbers in the audits.

Second, let's talk about those IOUs.

One thing that makes municipal finances confusing is that the Village doesn't operate out of a single bank account. It has multiple funds for different purposes, and sometimes one fund pays expenses or advances money on behalf of another. When that happens, the financial statements record an amount owed between the funds. You'll find these listed as "Due from Other Funds" in the audits (Audit FY2026, pp. 21, 42), but for our purposes, let's just call them IOUs.

Here's an everyday example. Suppose you've got $20 in your wallet and your buddy owes you $80. You can reasonably say you have $100 between the cash you're holding and the money you're owed. But if you want to spend $50 tonight, you've still only got $20 in your wallet. And if your buddy is having financial problems, you might want to consider how long it'll take to get that other $80 back.

That's why IOUs matter when we're evaluating the General Fund. They are legitimate accounting assets, and I'm not suggesting they shouldn't appear on the financial statements. But they aren't cash sitting in the bank, and their value to the Village depends in part on whether the other fund can actually repay them.

At the end of FY2026, the Golf Course Fund owed the General Fund $852,443, and the Refuse Fund owed another $32,810 (Audit FY2026, p. 42). Together, those IOUs totaled $885,253, an amount equivalent to more than a third of the General Fund's reported $2.55 million balance.

The golf course also reported a negative unrestricted net position of approximately $1.16 million (Audit FY2026, p. 30). That doesn't automatically mean its IOU won't be repaid, but it certainly makes the repayment time line question worth asking.

Third, what happens when we take the IOUs out?

This is where I think the comparison becomes especially interesting. The President's chart compares General Fund growth over two periods, FY2011 to FY2021 and FY2021 to FY2026. I used those same periods, but made one adjustment: I subtracted the IOUs owed to the General Fund at the end of each year.

I didn't change the underlying audit figures or choose different starting dates. I simply wanted to see how much the General Fund balance had grown without counting money that other Village funds still owed it.

Here's the comparison:

	FY2011–FY2021	FY2021–FY2026
Reported balance growth	$332,231	$914,920
Annualized growth	2.3%	9.3%
Growth without IOUs	$450,790	$242,800
Annualized growth without IOUs	3.9%	3.2%

Source: General Fund balances and "Due from Other Funds" on the governmental funds balance sheets (Audit FY2011, p. 11; Audit FY2021, p. 20; Audit FY2026, p. 21). Growth rates calculated from those figures.

That changes the story quite a bit. Using the reported balances, the General Fund appears to have grown much faster after FY2021. But when the IOUs are removed from both periods, the earlier ten years show $450,790 in growth, compared with $242,800 during the most recent five years. On an annualized basis, the growth rate actually slowed slightly, from 3.9% to 3.2%.

In other words, the dramatic improvement shown in the President's chart looks considerably less dramatic once we account for money owed between funds.

Now, there are a few qualifications worth mentioning because I don't want to do exactly what I'm criticizing. FY2011 also had a large IOU, which affects the starting point for the earlier period (Audit FY2011, p. 11). There were also years when the General Fund owed money to other funds. When I account for obligations going in both directions, the pattern remains similar: approximately 3.1% annual growth in the earlier period compared with 2.7% in the more recent one (Audit FY2011, p. 11; Audit FY2021, p. 20; Audit FY2026, p. 21; calculated using "Due from Other Funds" and "Due to Other Funds").

There were also one-time transactions in both periods, including a land sale in FY2020 (Audit FY2020, pp. 6, 14) and an accounting correction in FY2025 (Audit FY2025, pp. 25, 52). I've left those in because they're included in the President's comparison as well.

This isn't an alternative audited fund balance, and it isn't a calculation of how much cash the Village has available. It's simply another way of looking at the same financial history, one that separates reported growth from growth associated with IOUs.

Fourth, why do those IOUs matter so much?

Part of the answer goes back to how the Village accounts for capital projects.

For years, the Village regularly transferred money from the General Fund to the Capital Improvements Fund, where expenses for projects were recorded. Beginning in FY2021, those transfers became inconsistent, and by FY2025 they had stopped entirely (FY2021–FY2025 audits, governmental funds statements; Audit FY2025, p. 72).

It's important to understand what that does and doesn't mean. The Village didn't stop doing capital projects, and contractors weren't left waiting for their checks. The projects happened, the expenses were recorded, and the bills were paid. What didn't happen consistently was moving the money between the Village's funds to account for those expenses.

We've been told this was a multiyear auditing error, and I have no reason to question that explanation. I'm not suggesting anyone deliberately created these balances or manipulated the accounting. But even an unintentional error can have a significant effect on how financial results appear.

By FY2025, the Capital Improvements Fund owed the General Fund $846,148 (Audit FY2025, pp. 21–22, 42). That amount was recorded as an IOU to the General Fund, contributing to its reported financial position while the Capital Improvements Fund carried the corresponding obligation.

In FY2026, the Village transferred approximately $1.03 million to the Capital Improvements Fund, clearing the outstanding balance (Audit FY2026, pp. 25, 42). The General Fund's reported balance declined that year, but that wasn't because the Village suddenly decided to undertake a million dollars in new projects. The transfer addressed expenses and obligations that had accumulated over previous years.

Think of it as finally settling up after someone has been picking up the tab for a while. The expenses were real when they happened, even if the accounts weren't settled until later.

Finally, what about the rest of the Village?

So far, we've been looking primarily at the General Fund because that's what the President's chart highlights. But the Village has other funds, and their financial positions matter too.

Between FY2021 and FY2026, the General Fund's reported balance increased by $914,920. Over that same period, the Village's other governmental funds collectively declined by $543,746. When you look at all governmental funds together, the combined increase was $371,174 over five years (Audit FY2021, p. 20; Audit FY2026, pp. 22, 26).

That's still positive growth, but it puts the General Fund's performance into perspective. It also doesn't include the golf course or utilities, which are accounted for separately as business-type funds. That's another important piece of the Village's overall financial picture.

I also want to acknowledge something the audits clearly show: General Fund revenue increased from approximately $3.06 million in FY2021 to $4.45 million in FY2026 (Audit FY2021, p. 22; Audit FY2026, p. 78). That's real improvement, and it deserves recognition. Increased revenue gives the Village more ability to provide services, maintain infrastructure, and meet its obligations.

But revenue growth isn't the same as fund balance growth, and neither tells us everything about the Village's financial health. We need to consider the other funds, the outstanding IOUs, and whether those obligations can realistically be repaid.

That's why I have a problem with using a single chart to suggest that something extraordinary happened to Lakewood's finances in 2021. The audits tell a more complicated story, and residents deserve to see it.

What Do We Do About It?

Let's get the funds sorted out.

I believe the appropriate next step is for Village staff to review the outstanding interfund balances and provide the Board with recommendations for resolving them. Some obligations, such as the $32,810 owed by the Refuse Fund, may be reasonably repaid within the fiscal year. Others will require more planning.

The golf course's $852,443 IOU is a significant obligation, and I'd like the Board to consider whether it should be formalized through an interfund loan with clear repayment terms, a realistic schedule, and an identified source of funding.

I'm not suggesting trustees should decide which accounting entries to make or direct staff in how to perform their work. That's the responsibility of the professionals managing Village operations. But the Board does need to understand what each fund owes, what can realistically be repaid, and how the remaining obligations will be addressed.

And let's be careful about what we're telling residents.

Lakewood's Code of Conduct, Chapter 3, Section 3.18(D)(7), directs Village officials not to "misrepresent material facts about issues" (Village of Lakewood Municipal Code, §3.18(D)(7)). I think that's an important standard for all of us, myself included.

I welcome debate about the Village's financial condition. In fact, I'd love to see more residents interested in understanding it. And to be fair to the President, apart from the FY2026 number that doesn't match the audit, the historical General Fund balances in his chart appear to be accurate.

My objection isn't that the General Fund grew. It's that the chart presents that growth as evidence of extraordinary financial success (seemingly to imply it is based on his election in 2021 -- which I will humbly note was aided in part by my very work in shedding light on village finances) without showing how much of it came from IOUs or what happened to the rest of the Village's money.

I can't speak to the President's intentions, and I'm not suggesting he deliberately misrepresented anything. But I do believe the chart gives residents a misleading impression of our overall financial condition, particularly when the growth comparison changes so dramatically once the IOUs are removed.

As elected officials, we're responsible for the financial health of the entire Village, not just whichever fund happens to have the prettiest graph. I'm happy to celebrate financial progress, but I want to make sure we're celebrating the right thing.

A healthy General Fund is good. A financially healthy Village is the actual goal. And those aren't necessarily the same thing.

Sources & Documents

• Village of Lakewood Annual Financial Reports, FY2011–FY2026, including the October 22, 2026 restated FY2026 report. Note revised report does not appear on Village site, uploaded here for review.

• Village President's November 13, 2026 Facebook chart. (closed Facebook group, screenshot in post)

• Village of Lakewood Municipal Code, Chapter 3, §3.18(D)(7), Code of Conduct.

  
  

The "without IOUs" figures subtract amounts recorded as "Due from Other Funds" from the reported General Fund balances. They are an analytical comparison, not an alternative audited fund balance or a measure of available cash.

This article reflects my perspective as an individual Village Trustee, not an official position of the Village Board. Charts produced in this report were built leveraging Claude AI (directly from the audits and the numbers were validated.