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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.