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Audit Objective

Determine whether the Board and District officials properly managed fund balance.

Key Findings

• The Board appropriated approximately $3.9 million in fund balance and reserves from 2016-17 through 2018-19, but only used approximately $218,000.
• The tax certiorari reserve was overfunded by nearly $1.9 million as of June 30, 2019.
• When unused appropriated fund balance and the overfunded reserve were added back to the surplus fund balance, the District’s recalculated surplus balance exceeded the statutory limit each of the last three fiscal years, ranging from 3.2 percentage points to 9.5 percentage points over the limit.

Key Recommendations

• Adopt budgets that include reasonable estimates for appropriations and the amount of fund balance that will be used to fund operations.
• Return excess funds in the tax certiorari reserve to the surplus fund balance in the general fund in accordance with the law.
• Reduce surplus fund balance to comply with the statutory limit and use excess funds in a manner beneficial to taxpayers.

District officials agreed with our findings and recommendations and indicated that they have taken, or planned to take, corrective action.