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Audit Objective

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

Key Findings

• The Board overestimated appropriations, which exceeded expenditures by an average of $2.1 million or 11.3 percent annually, or a cumulative total of more than $6.3 million or 11.3 percent from 2015-16 through 2017-18.
• The District’s recalculated unrestricted fund balance ranged between 8.7 and 11.1 percent of ensuing years’ appropriations, exceeding the 4 percent statutory limit.
• Four reserves were overfunded.

Key Recommendations

• Develop realistic appropriations and only appropriate fund balance that will actually be used to fund operations.
• Use surplus funds in a manner that benefits District taxpayers, such as funding one-time expenditures and/or necessary reserves and reducing property taxes.
• Review all reserves to determine whether balances are necessary and reasonable and use excess amounts in accordance with applicable statutes and in a manner that benefits taxpayers.

District officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they planned to take corrective action.