Audit Period

July 1, 2016 – April 24, 2018

We extended our audit period back to July 1, 2013 to analyze financial trends.

Audit Objective

Determine whether District officials adequately managed the District’s financial condition.

Key Findings

• From 2013-14 through 2015-16, the District adopted budgets that planned to use $1.6 million of general fund balance and certain reserve funds to finance operating expenditures. However, the general fund incurred operating deficits totaling $4.8 million during this time. As a result, the District used $3.2 million more fund balance and reserves than planned.
• In 2016-17, revenues began to outpace expenditures; revenues increased by more than 5 percent, while expenditures increased by less than 1 percent. Expenditures declined due to District cost reduction measures.
• District officials improved their budgeting practices in 2016-17 by considering historical trends, resulting in expenditure and revenue variances of 3 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

Key Recommendations

• Continue to reduce reliance on fund balance to finance recurring expenditures.

District officials generally agreed with our recommendation and indicated they planned to continue to work toward meeting our recommendation.