YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

December 1, 2000

Report No. 2000-121

IMPORTANT:� The Missouri State Auditor is required by Missouri law to conduct audits only once every four years in counties, like Osage, which do not have a county auditor.� However, to assist such counties in meeting federal audit requirements, the State Auditor will also perform a financial and compliance audit of various county operating funds every two years.� This voluntary service to Missouri counties can only be provided when state auditing resources are available and does not interfere with the State Auditor�s constitutional responsibility of auditing state government. 

Once every four years, the State Auditor�s statutory audit will cover additional areas of county operations, as well as the elected county officials,� as required by Missouri�s Constitution.��

This audit of Osage County was a financial and compliance audit of various county operating funds.�  

• In years past, the county had not sufficiently reduced its property tax revenues by 50 percent of the sales tax revenues as provided in the ballot issue passed by Osage County voters.� However, the rollback for each of the two years ended December 31, 1999 and 1998 was sufficient as compared to each year�s sales tax collections. The rollback also resulted in a reduction in the amount of prior years� excess property tax revenue collections from approximately $340,000 at December 31, 1997, to approximately $285,000 at December 31, 1999.� Additional reductions will need to be made in future years to further reduce the amount of prior years� excess property tax revenue collections.� 

The audit also includes some other matters upon which the county should consider and take appropriate corrective action.

Complete Audit Report