LADY BUDGETDOWN: FREELAND: FOLLOW THE MONEY. CHECK THE RECORD.
We've looked at Freeland's funding, staffing, compensation and other pieces of the ledger. Now it's time to look at the General Fund, and the audits. 🔎
And this one requires an important distinction:
An audited result is what actually happened. A budget is what the district expects to happen.
Those are not the same thing.
💰 2023–24: WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
Freeland's audited 2023–24 General Fund reported:
Revenue: $26,367,465
Expenditures: $25,011,828
Surplus: +$1,355,637
That increased General Fund balance from $6,740,019 to $8,095,656.
The district also spent $852,600 less than its revised expenditure budget.
In other words, Freeland entered the next budget cycle from a pretty strong position.
But then the projections changed.
📉 2024–25 FINAL BUDGET
Revenue: $25,598,120
Expenditures: $26,831,915
Projected Deficit: −$1,233,795
Projected ending fund balance:
$6,861,861
📉 2025–26 JUNE AMENDED BUDGET
Revenue: $26,261,406
Expenditures: $28,691,504
Projected Deficit: −$2,430,098
Projected ending fund balance:
Approximately $5.42 million.
And then comes the newly adopted 2026–27 budget.
📉 2026–27 ORIGINAL BUDGET
Revenue: $25,903,402
Expenditures: $26,236,691
Projected deficit:
−$333,289
Using the approximately $5.42 million beginning General Fund balance shown in the budget, that would leave roughly:
$5.09 million
if the budget performs exactly as projected.
Now before anyone reaches for the pitchforks...
🪶 THE AUDITS MATTER, TOO.
The audit record we reviewed does not show some hidden financial catastrophe.
The audits report unmodified, clean opinions.
For the years reviewed, we found no reported financial-statement findings, no identified material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting, and no reportable instances of noncompliance.
That deserves to be said just as clearly as the deficits do.
Because receipts work both ways.
📜 THE LADY BUDGETDOWN TAKEAWAY
Freeland finished 2023–24 with a $1.36 million audited surplus and an $8.10 million General Fund balance.
The budgets that followed, however, call for using some of those accumulated reserves as expenditures exceed revenues.
If those projections materialize, the General Fund balance could move from approximately:
$8.10 million → $5.09 million
by June 30, 2027.
That's roughly a $3.01 million reduction from the audited June 2024 balance.
But here's the important part:
Projected deficits are not audited losses.
Freeland has previously finished better than its amended budget anticipated. In 2023–24 alone, expenditures finished $852,600 below the revised budget.
So we're not declaring a financial crisis.
We're also not ignoring three consecutive budgets that contemplate expenditures exceeding revenues.
We're doing something much less dramatic:
Watching the ledger. 👀
If reserves are deliberately being used, taxpayers can ask what they're being used for, whether the spending is temporary or recurring, and whether the drawdown is sustainable.
Then, when the next audited financial statements arrive, we'll see what actually happened.
No panic.
No spin.
Just the numbers with receipts and respect. 🪶
#LadyBudgetdown #FreelandSchools #SaginawCounty #SchoolFinance #EducationTransparency #PublicRecords #FollowTheMoney