Audit Objective
Determine whether District officials effectively managed general fund balance.
Key Findings
- The District’s reported fund balance has increased significantly over the past three fiscal years and the surplus fund balance was in excess of the statutory limit at fiscal year-ends 2015-16 through 2017-18 by 6.9 to 15.3 percentage points.
- Appropriations were consistently overestimated which resulted in the increasing fund balance levels and the District not using any of the fund balance it appropriated to finance 2017-18 operations.
- The District has not formalized or adopted a multiyear financial and capital plan.
Key Recommendations
- Use surplus funds as a financing source to fund one-time expenditures and reserves, pay off debt or to reduce District property taxes.
- Adopt annual budgets with realistic estimates for appropriations.
- Adopt a multiyear financial and capital plan.
Except as specified in Appendix A, District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they planned to take corrective action. Appendix B includes our comments on issues raised in the District’s response letter.