With the State Comptroller’s office stating that Cannon County is in a financial management crisis and directing the Cannon County Commission and other officials to take the following actions to insure compliance with the statutory cash basis budget requirements and to successfully manage the financial affairs of the County, the Cannon County Budget Committee met Thursday night to put together recommendations to bring the County on the path to the budget requirements that the State wants the County to have in place. Last Friday a delegation of the County Commission which consisted of Commission members Mark Barker, Russell Reed, Glenn Steakley and Jim Bush along with County Executive Mike Gannon visited the Comptroller’s office to discuss the financial condition and what actions specifically needed to be taken to address those conditions.
According to a letter received Thursday the current financial situation was stated:
The General Fund monthly cash flow forecast submitted to the Comptroller’s office by the County and included in the Comptroller’s letter back October 7th indicated the County projects it will overspend available cash for this fiscal year by $50,493.
Cash flow projections for the County reflect deficit cash balances in the months July through January of fiscal year 2017 for the General Fund indicating there is not sufficient cash to meet planned spending during those months. The County only has two months in the fiscal year with sufficient cash resources to meet planned spending. Those months are February and March.
The county has issued $920,332 in General Interfund Tax and Revenue Anticipation Notes through last Friday in anticipation of property tax collections.
The proposed plan of action was to include the following
Put in place internal control procedures that prevent the County from spending more than its available cash
Monthly Monitoring by the County Commission of the County’s financial condition
A Cash balance policy for the General Fund that requires working capital sufficient to permit the County to operate without borrowing for operations and
Put in place steps to be taken to generate $1 million in working capital to operate the County’s general government.
CTAS representative Ben Rodgers was on hand at the meeting and stated the Comptroller’s office doesn’t want the county to generate the entire million but over a short course of time get the revenue generated in the general fund balance.
At the time the October 7th letter went out that indicated the County had spent almost 20% of their budget in the first two months alone, the County had to undergo three payrolls in the month of September which was one more than this time last year. That accounted for almost $100,000 more than September of last fiscal year. There was also a $31,000 grant that the County will be awarded by the 9-1-1 department, that the County had to pay for in order to get the grant to reimburse. That money has been shown taken out of the budget and the County is waiting for a check to add back in.
Budget Committee Chairman Mark Barker stated that revenues are starting to come in and with a couple of tweaks and adjustments, the County is safely making payroll to their employees which is a requirement by the state. In looking over cutting expenditures from this year’s budget, the Committee was informed that they had to meet maintenance of effort not only in the schools but also in the Sheriff’s Office, Public Library, Election Commission in a non election year and Assessor or Property. With that being said Committee member Glenn Steakley presented his plan that would cut a little over $100,000 from this year’s fiscal budget and be in line with the amount of cutting the expenditures the State Comptroller’s Office says it wants to see cut before next fiscal year. Although there are few circumstances, such as the reworking of the maintenance of effort, all County Departments will be required to cut 2.42 percent from their budgets. Solid waste will cut 3.42 percent from its budget. These budget cuts must be made by Thursday of next week as that will be the date the full Cannon County Commission will meet to discuss the recommendation made by the Budget Committee.
