YELLOW SHEET
Office of the State Auditor of Missouri
Claire McCaskill
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YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri |
January 14, 2002
Report No. 2002-04
IMPORTANT:� The Missouri State Auditor is required by
Missouri law to conduct audits only once every four years in counties, like
Maries, 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� Maries County included
additional areas of county operations, as well as the elected county
officials.� The following concerns were
noted as part of the audit:
���������� The county has not sufficiently reduced its property tax
revenues by 50 percent of the sales tax revenues as provided in the ballot
issue passed by the Maries county voters under provisions of Section 67.505,
RSMo 2000. The county has collected $64,810 of excess property tax revenues as
of December 31, 2000.�
���������� The county's Road and Bridge Fund has been financing the
purchase of equipment at increasing amounts over the course of the past several
years resulting in outstanding lease and loan balances of approximately
$768,000 at December 31, 2000.� Due to
two large balloon payments scheduled in 2003, it appears the county will need
to expend approximately 60-70% of estimated fund revenues to make the required
payments.� In addition, the county does
not maintain records documenting payments made and balances due on ten lease
and loan agreements.
���������� In anticipation of the decline of the financial condition
of the county, the County Commission submitted to the voters of Maries County a
one-half of one percent sales tax levy for the purpose of general
operations.� This sales tax was approved
by the voters in November 2001.� With
this additional general operations sales tax, the county is apparently imposing
a levy of one-half of one percent above the statutory maximum allowed by
Section 67.547 RSMo, 2000.
���������� A state law, Section 50.333.13, RSMo, enacted in 1997,
allowed salary commissions meeting in 1997 to provide mid-term salary increases
for associate county commissioners elected in 1996 due to the fact that their
terms were increased from two years to four.�
Based on this law, in 1998 Maries County's Associate County Commissioners
salaries were each increased approximately $2,200 according to information from
the County Clerk
On May 15, 2001, the Missouri Supreme Court handed
down an opinion in a case that challenged the validity of that statute. The
Supreme Court held that this section of statute violated Article VII, section
13 of the Missouri Constitution, which specifically prohibits an increase in
compensation for state, county and municipal officers during the term of
office. This case, Laclede County v. Douglas et al., holds that all
raises given pursuant to this statute section are unconstitutional.
���������� As a result of the county not updating its listing of fixed assets since 1996, the county did
not ensure all equipment was covered by insurance and were unable to recover
the market value totaling approximately $30,000 for a tractor and brush cutter
that was damaged by fire.� In addition,
at the time of the above loss the County Commission performed a review of its
insurance coverage and discovered three other pieces of equipment valued at
approximately $227,000 had not been insured.
Also included in the audit are recommendations related to county expenditures and revenues, budgetary and financial reporting practices, county official's compensation and bonds, and property tax system and computer controls.� The audit also suggested improvements in the procedures of the Sheriff, License office, Public Administrator, Prosecuting Attorney, County Clerk, and Associate Circuit Division.