Chapter 6 Transactions Affecting General Long-term Liabilities and Debt Service

The City of Smithville created a Street Improvement Bond Debt Service Fund to be used to retire the bonds issued for the purposes described in Chapter 5 of this cumulative problem, and to pay the interest on the bonds. The $3,000,000 face value of bonds issued during 2023 are dated January 1, 2023, but were not issued until February 1, 2023. Because bondholders will receive six months of interest on July 1, 2023 in the total amount of $37,500, they were required to pay $6,250 on the date of issue to pay the city for unearned interest from January 1 to February 1. The bonds bear interest of 2.5 percent per annum. The first interest payment of $37,500 is due July 1, 2023. Subsequent semiannual interest payments will be made January 1 and July 1 of each following year until the maturity of the bonds. Bonds in the amount of $750,000 are to mature five years after the date of the bonds (January 1, 2028), and $150,000 is to mature January 1 of each year thereafter until all the bonds issued in 2023 have been retired. Thus, these bonds are deferred serial bonds as discussed in Chapter 6 of the textbook. Make entries as instructed in the following paragraphs.

Bond covenants related to this bond issue require the city to levy property taxes sufficient to make principal and interest payments until the bonds have been retired. The city council has approved a resolution to enable the property tax levy, beginning in fiscal year 2024. As the bond issue did not occur until February 2023, the city will not levy debt service property taxes until next year.

Prepare general journal entries, as necessary to record the transactions described below in the Street Improvement Bond Debt Service Fund general journal and, if applicable, in the governmental activities general journal. Use account titles listed under the drop down [Account] menu. Be sure the year 2023 is selected from the drop-down [Year] menu and the appropriate paragraph number shown in bold-face font below is in the [Add description] box.

[Para. 6-a-1] In early February 2023, an amendment to the annual budget for 2023 was approved by the city council for inflows and outflows in the Street Improvement Bond Debt Service Fund related to the bond issue. The debt service fund budget amendment provides for estimated other financing sources of $30,000 for the premium on bonds sold, estimated other financing sources of $38,750 for a transfer from the General Fund that will be used to help pay interest due on July 1, 2023 and January 1, 2024, estimated revenues of $6,250 for accrued interest on bonds sold, and appropriations in the amount of the one interest payment of $37,500 to be made during 2023. (The payment that is due on July 1, 2023.)

Required: Record the budget for the Street Improvement Bond Debt Service Fund for year 2023. Budgetary entries have no effect on the government-wide accounting records.

[Para. 6-a-2] On February 1, 2023, the premium and accrued interest on bonds sold were received by the Street Improvement Bond Debt Service Fund. (See Transaction 5-a-2 in the Street Improvement Fund.)

Required: Record this transaction in the debt service fund. No entry is required at this time in the governmental activities general journal since the bond issue, including the related premium and accrued interest, was recorded in the governmental activities general journal in transaction 5-a-2.

[Para. 6-a-3] To permit payment of the $37,500 interest payments due on July 1, 2023 and January 1, 2024, the Street Improvement Bond Debt Service Fund received $38,750 from the General Fund.

Required: Record the interfund transfer in the debt service fund journal only. This transaction was previously recorded in the General Fund in Chapter 4 of this problem. The transaction has no effect at the government-wide level since it occurs between two governmental funds.

[Para. 6-a-4] The July 1, 2023, interest payment was made in the amount of $37,500.

Required: Record the interest payment in both the debt service fund and the governmental activities general journals. Since ExpenseInterest on Long-Term Debt was credited for $6,250 in 5-a-2 in the governmental activities general journal record the full July 1, 2023 interest payment as a debit to Interest Expense, less amortization of the premium. For the entry in the governmental activities journal, assume that the appropriate amount of amortization of the Premium on Deferred Serial Bonds Payable for the period the bonds have been outstanding (February 1 to July 1) is $231. Although premiums and discounts on bonds issued are not amortized in a debt service fund, they should be amortized at the government-wide level since the accrual basis of accounting is used at that level.

[Para. 6-a-5] Accrue six months of interest payable on the 2.5% deferred serial bonds from the July 1 interest payment until the end of the fiscal year, December 31, 2023.

Required: Make the required journal entry in the governmental activities general journal. For this entry, assume that the appropriate amount of amortization of the Premium on Deferred Serial Bonds Payable is $233. Recall that interest is not accrued for the period July 1 to December 31, 2023 in the debt service fund as no appropriation exists for this expenditure and the interest is not due this fiscal year.

Verify the accuracy of journal entries, including dates and paragraph numbers, and, if you have not already done so, post all entries to the general ledger of both the Street Improvement Bond Debt Service Fund and governmental activities by clicking on [Post entries]. Make the entries needed to close the budgetary and operating statement accounts at the end of fiscal year 2023. Budgetary and operating statement accounts should be closed to Budgetary Fund Balance and Fund BalanceRestricted, as appropriate. Make this entry only in the Street Improvement Bond Debt Service Fund journal. Be sure that for each account being closed that the check mark for [Closing Entry] is on and that Closing Entry appears in the [Add description] box. Closing entries for governmental activities at the government-wide level will be made in Chapter 9 of this cumulative problem.

Go to [File/Export] and export Excel files of the pre-closing and post-closing trial balances for the Street Improvement Bond Debt Service Fund as of December 31, 2023, and use them to prepare a balance sheet; statement of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balances; schedule of revenues, expenditures, and changes in fund balancesbudget and actual for the Street Improvement Bond Debt Service Fund. The format for the statements will be similar to that of the combing statements in Illustrations 6-8, 6-9, and 6-10 of the textbook.

[Note: Retain all required printouts in your cumulative folder until directed by your instructor to submit them, unless your instructor specifies submission of files electronically, in which case you will need to save a .pdf version of your trial balance.]

Before closing the City of Smithville it is recommended that you save a backup copy of your work to another location by clicking on [File] and [Save As].

As given later in Chapter 8 of this project, the assessed valuation of property within the City of Smithville is $342,581,818. Assuming the legal general obligation debt limit is 8 percent of assessed valuation, prepare in good form a schedule showing the legal debt limit, debt outstanding subject to the limit, and the legal debt margin of the city as of December 31, 2023, rounding the debt limit to the nearest whole dollar (see Illustration 6-3 for an example). A note at the bottom of the schedule should disclose the bonds authorized but unissued, as described in the introductory paragraph of Chapter 5 of the City of Smithville cumulative problem. This will inform the reader that additional debt issuances are pending.

Fiscal year 2024 Transactions:

On January 2, 2024, the City of Smithville approved the issuance of additional street improvement bonds in the total amount of $6,000,000. The new bonds will be serial bonds and will bear interest at the nominal annual rate of 2.75 percent. These bonds are dated January 1, 2024, and will be issued during the next few months when the citys bond underwriters believe market conditions are most favorable.

The first interest payment on the new bonds will be due on July 1, 2024; interest will be payable January 1 and July 1 of each following year until maturity. Bonds in the amount of $200,000 will mature on January 1, 2025, and in the same amount at each interest payment date thereafter until all bonds of the 2024 issue have been retired. To give you some additional practice on accounting for a debt service fund record the following events and transactions that are presumed to occur in fiscal year 2024. The transactions are to be recorded in the Street Improvement Bond Debt Service Fund only.