...a simple (?) finance question...

[FirstLight]

Doing research on a story about the result of the recession on local business over the years.

went to the City's website as driected by a friend in finance... and started to peruse the financial statements for the months/quarters...

Okay, the reports from 06/07 and 07/08 actually broke out the revenues from business licenses and showed the variance for the year to date

in 2008/09 the format of the reports changed, and the business revenues were not longer listed spearately
i think they fall under 'enterprise' revenues, but that is not clearly defined

also, when i called my friend back to ask her about the change in format...
she tells me the city runs on 2 separate fiscal years

Business licenses run from july-june
regular fiscal year runs from sept to oct (and that includes info about hotel tax and sales tax)

so :wtf:

it feels like someone is 'cooking the books' to hide how bad things really ARE
I am submitting a formal request for a report that will break out the numbers
we'll see if they approve or deny the info...i may have to invoke the FOIA