YELLOW SHEET Office of the State Auditor of Missouri Claire McCaskill

September 20, 1999
Report No. 99-77

IMPORTANT: This report contains information about the ninety-three (93) Missouri counties which do not have a county auditor. Using the most recent audit reports, county budgets, and additional outside information, this report has been compiled to show various comparative financial information.

Counties typically receive and spend a large portion of their receipts to support general county operations and to build and maintain roads and bridges. For 1998, the median (the middle amount in a series of amounts) county receipts for the General Revenue fund were approximately $1,154,000 while the median disbursements were approximately $1,191,000. The median receipts and disbursements for the Special Road and Bridge Fund were both approximately $1,093,000.

The report shows sales tax as the main source of receipts for most counties, especially the General Revenue Fund, while intergovernmental revenues, such as federal and state aid, are the main source of receipts for the Special Road and Bridge Fund.

Information regarding typical audit findings is included in the annual report. Many of the more frequent findings noted have remained similar over the past several years though improvement has been noted for some areas, including counties' banking practices and compliance with sales tax rollback requirements. However, other concerns with counties' budgetary and financial reporting procedures and fee officials' accounting controls and record keeping procedures continue to be reported in county audit reports.

The annual report also contains other comparative financial information, including data on the Assessment Fund, information on the other major sales tax funds, assessed valuations and tax levies of the counties.

Complete Audit Report