|
At Tuesday night's board
meeting, Dave Meyer, a partner representing PTW, presented the audit
results and a brief overview of the county finances for the fiscal
year ending Nov. 30, 2003. Meyer said PTW looked at the
documentation supporting all the county balances, cash balances in
the bank at the end of the year, revenues that came in during the
year and how the money was spent. "We came out and tested your
financial information. We tested that, and we found that everything
is fairly stated in all material respects. In other words, it's a
good opinion," he said
The one qualification of
something that is changing is that general fixed assets were not
presented on this audit. Depreciation of equipment will be shown.
That is something the county is working on this year, as it must be
there for next year.
Meyer then pointed out
highlights of the more than 45-page report, which included projected
and actual budget comparisons for the past year.
The combined balance sheet
showed that the total cash balance ending Nov. 30 was $11.8 million
in various funds. Some funds are in agency funds that have tax money
that has been collected and is passed on to others. A comparison of
2003 to 2002 shows that the numbers are similar, so the balances are
probably the same in those funds as in the prior year, Meyer said.
The statement of revenues,
expenditures and changes in form balances reflects what happened
during the year. For example, Meyer said the county general fund
took in $4 million and spent $4.9 million.
The next page contains budget
versus actual. It provides, "Here's what you budgeted and here's
what you actually did," Meyer explained. "If you look at the general
fund, you actually budgeted to have a half-million-dollar loss."
[to top of second column in
this article]
 |
Looking at the report readily
shows what contributed to the $354,000 less than budgeted figure.
When you look at the revenues, you see that revenues fell far short
of where you wanted them to be. As an example, interest was almost
$70,000 less than hoped for. Another area that was lower than
budgeted was the fines and fees collection.
Board chairman Dale Voyles
commented that the fees and fines have been raised but did not
affect this budget. It will be showing up and help the future
finances.
Board member Chuck Ruben
complimented county departments and heads for staying within their
budgets. "On the expense side, we did rather well." He pointed out
that the one department that was rather high was the judicial. But
that is because the number of arrests, jail, juvenile and other
costs are not controllable factors and cannot be predicted for the
budget.
Meyer was asked how our audit
compares to others. He said that PTW audits Will and Kane counties
and about 50 or so municipalities. Most had expenditures in excess
of revenues this past year. A lot of revenues were down. A lot of
sales tax revenues were down and interest revenues were down as
well, just like Logan County experienced.
There were also a lot of
increases in public safety expenditures. There were additional law
enforcement officers hired and extra expenditures for homeland
security.
Future reporting standards will
continue to change. Next year requires an "extra layer of
reporting." The government sets all the rules for accounting, Meyer
said. Sikich Gardner is helping the county prepare for the increased
reporting.
Meyer concluded that the Logan County audit report was "pretty
standard for a government your size."
[Jan
Youngquist]
 |
