County commissioners celebrate on time budget audit

ANSON — “This is the first audit we have had completed on time since 2016 and so this is a big accomplishment for the county and our staff,” said County Chair Jamie Caudle at commissioners’ early November board meeting, where Tim Zeng, a representative from the county’s accounting firm, Thompson Scott, Price, Adams & Company P.A., updated the county on the state of its 2024 audit.

Zeng last came before commissioners in May, when he announced an impressive turn-around in the direction of the county budget. Zeng has worked on the Anson County budget since 2021 and is anticipating an on time completion of Anson’s 2025 audit as well.

“I certainly appreciate you presenting this information to us and like I said, we’re just glad to be able to get it completed on time and we look forward to getting 2025 completed on time as well,” said Cauldle. “Thank you for the hard work you and your staff put in to get these audits completed.”

Zeng said his firm has again issued an “unmodified opinion,” which, he says, is the highest level of the audit opinion and means the county’s audit is a clean and fair report.

Anson’s audit revealed a few dings in Medicaid.

“You have five findings for Medicaid. It is just because Medicaid itself is a very complicated system. Every county, basically every year, has anywhere between two to five findings, so I would not say that is normal, but that is not uncommon,” he explained.

Additionally, the government has issued a new GASB standard, which Zeng explained as a new standard for accounting compensated absences, such as for sick leave or vacation time.

“They have a new method to account for those liabilities and we are going to implement that standard next year in your 2025 audit. We do advise the board that it will take additional time to perform that testing as well as the implementation of that standard, but that’s across the board, we’re implementing that for all of our clients,” he said.

Zeng laid out a side-by-side comparison of key points from the present 2024 audit with Anson County’s previous four years of audit data.

“The total fund balance of your general fund has dropped from 29.06 to 27.82, that is majorly because your general fund has, I don’t want to say operating loss, but it’s a negative check and fund balance, so basically your general fund balance has reduced. That is majorly contributed by the additional expenditures over the revenue — means you didn’t bring in as much as you brought out. Including transfers, you lost approximately over $2.2 million in the general fund. You have a fund balance available as a percentage of general fund expenditures at 65.71%, the minimum percentage threshold is 8%, so I wouldn’t call 65% as the ‘danger range,’ but you do realize that percentage has been decreasing over the five years,” highlighted Zeng.

He pointed out a fund balance of $8.9 million is a decrease from the county’s 11.6 million the previous year.

“You have several revenues under or over expenditures before transfers and that is your net income or net loss as a negative number for general fund, water fund and sewer fund. You do have operating losses across all three funds,” said Zeng.

Though analysis of the general fund balance placed the county at 65.7%, which is above the state average of remaining above the 8% minimum, Zeng encourages the county to continue working towards getting this percentage as high as possible in order for the county to cover expenditures for at least 1 month out of a twelve-month calendar year.

“Analysis of your unassigned fund balance is a percentage of general fund expenditures at 23.85%, again you can see that the trend has been going down, the lowest among the most recent five years. Between your general fund and water and sewer, you both have operating loss, again, this has contributed to more expenditures than your generating revenues,” he said.

When comparing the county’s cash balance with its fund balance, Zeng says commissioners can see the majority of the fund balance is in cash, which he says is a very healthy sign.

Continually disheartening for the county’s accountant firm, Anson remains slow in its tax collection.

“Your property tax rate is unchanged in the most recent five years, but your collection percentage is at 92.54%, which has been the lowest in the most five years. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of your tax, it is the bloodline of all counties and you know, in fairness, all local governments. It’s important, it’s very important, that we really hold on to the collection rate and bring that up to make sure that we have a steady revenue generating source,” said Zeng, pointing out that while the county has a slightly higher tax rate, its collection of those funds continues to be 6% lower than the state average of 98%.

He encouraged county leaders to make focusing on tax collection paramount, as Anson can no longer expect to enjoy the additional grant opportunities that were available during the COVID pandemic.

“With the state assuming, or expecting, us to maintain at least that 8% in our fund balance and the fact that we’re close to 24%, just to clarify, so if anybody is listening, that we have approximately three times the minimum amount that the state would require in our fund balance, and I guess, the 8% would cover us for one month, and the 24%, approximately what we have, would cover us for three months, is that correct,” questioned Commissioner JD Bricken.

Zeng answered in the affirmative, saying, “That is under assumption that you have zero dollars in revenue incoming … You are correct on that one being the 24%, you are closer to converting three months worth of expenditures.”