By Richard Sullins | richard@rantnc.com
A report by an independent auditing firm shows Lee County government’s finances are being managed properly and that the county is in a strong financial position.
County commissioners heard the results of the audit for Fiscal Year 2022-23 from Alan Thompson of Thompson, Price, Scott, Adams and Company PA at their meeting on Monday, held at noon at the McSwain Center so as not to interfere with the Sanford Christmas Parade held later that evening.
Thompson characterized the audit result as an “unmodified,” or “clean,” report with no issues found to be worthy of an audit finding on the effectiveness of the county finance office’s system of internal controls. Democratic Commissioner Cameron Sharpe was quick to point out that “the finance team has had many years of spotless audits and that speaks well of our people and our county’s financial management systems.”
Finance Director Candace Iceman reported that the county’s total receipts during the fiscal year completed on June 30 were $91,407,723, which included both revenues and budget transfers, representing an increase of five percent over the previous year. Receipts from ad valorem, or property, taxes made up 56 percent of the total budget for FY 2022-23, followed by sales tax revenues of roughly half that amount (26 percent).
The assessed value of all properties in Lee County during the year was a little more than $6.7 billion, which includes values from the recent reappraisals from last winter. Of all taxes that were levied in FY 2022-23, 99.28 percent were collected.
Among the major categories where the largest amounts of county tax dollars were spent, education, general government, and human services made up the top three groupings with expenditures of $87 million. Of these, Lee County Schools was the largest by a wide margin at 32.65 percent of the total amount of all county dollars spent, with Central Carolina Community College local funds of $14,006,491, or 16 percent of the total county budget.
Total expenditures and budget transfers for FY 2022-23 was $87,139,132, which created an additional $5.8 million that was added to the county’s fund balance. As of June 30, 2023, the county’s available fund balance stood at $29,172,494.
A county’s fund balance consists of unspent revenue from the previous year that is held in reserve by the county to be available for use in future circumstances as deemed necessary by the county commissioners, up to a predetermined percentage required to be held in reserve for fiscal emergencies by state regulations. Think of it as a savings account with restrictions on what, how, and when it can be used.
The county’s public debt last year was $72 million, mostly from general obligation bonds authorized by the voters for construction projects in the Lee County Schools district and Central Carolina Community College. The amount of indebtedness has been decreasing steadily over the past three years as those bonds continue to be paid off.
Reports of this type usually don’t create a lot of discussion, but Monday’s report summary did generate a round of appreciation and congratulations from the commissioners to the county’s finance office for the environment of continuous due diligence it maintains among the staff.
After hearing the highlights of the audit, one commissioner found evidence of the board’s commitments to the welfare of the county’s 63,000 citizens.
“I hope this report shows how committed we are to education, to parks and recreation, and to our commitment to being good stewards of the taxpayers’ money,” Democratic Commissioner Mark Lovick said.
Leadership to serve for another year
Monday’s meeting began with the selection of the board’s leadership for the next year. Republican Kirk Smith was re-elected for another term as chairman of the board on a 5-2 vote, with Lovick joining the board’s four Republicans. Vice Chair Dr. Andre Knecht received all seven votes and was re-elected for another year in that role.
The commissioners will continue to meet in 2024 on the first Monday of the month at the McSwain Center on Tramway Road and on the third Monday at the Dennis A. Wicker Center on the campus of Central Carolina Community College on Nash Street. Meeting times will continue to be at 6 p.m.
Smith also announced the promotion of Ryan Faulk to serve as director of the county’s General Services division. Faulk previously served as the unit’s deputy director and stepped into the director’s role on an interim basis about a year ago. The General Services division is responsible for the maintenance of more than 40 county buildings, parks, and other recreational facilities.
Great, we have money. What we don’t have is drinkable water. Yet we are not only going to keep serving it up locally, but we are soon going to start selling this polluted industrial waste to Fuquay and Holly Springs and Pittsboro. Yay? If they wanted to, Sanford could figure out what industrial users were dumping all the PFAS into the river. But they don’t want to bother, figuring we are all just too stupid to notice.