There were audible gasps by School Board members, and Chairman Sonny Abbott said he’s “irritated” by claims that the County is holding back the school division’s share of sales tax proceeds.
The revelation came during Thursday night’s School Board meeting.
School Finance Director Maier said the division is helping the County “reconcile its books” with the school system’s and that there has been “discrepancy between us and the County.”
Ms. Maier said there’s been a “glitch” with some of the division’s expenditure reports. “You can add them up on a calculator and then add them up in Excel, and they weren’t adding-up with what was on paper. So we’re working with our accounting software company to fix that.”
Efforts continue, Director Maier reported, on establishing an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) “between us, the County Administrator, and the Treasurer’s Office” that complies with State Code.
The gasps came after Director Maier said that auditors are “pushing for us to accrue funds back to FY 24. Apparently some of this was done prior, without our knowledge. So that was a hard pill to swallow but the past is the past, and we’re just gonna move on with the future.”
Director Maier said the division hasn’t received from the County sales tax proceeds from the months of July and August. “That’s money that was spent in stores in June…The state says those two months should be accrued back to the prior fiscal year…We will have to go back to the County and ask for additional carryover to be approved and reappropriated to us. Right now that number stands at $304,000…the only thing I don’t have is sales tax from July and August. The Treasurer is holding on to that. She has not given that to us.”
“Has she indicated WHY she’s holding it?” asked Chairman Abbott.
“No,” Director Maier replied. “And to be honest, the emails that have been sent, requesting that they be transferred, have kind of gone unanswered. I don’t know why she’s holding on to that. I’m hoping we can get that resolved.”
School Board member Charles Wilson suggested that it all sounds worthy of an “investigation.”
“It’s been a little frustrating,” Director Maier replied.
In response to Abbott, Director Maier said approximately $175,000 to $200,000 of the $304,000 is being withheld.
Abbott he says he knows why — because he’s been attending Board of Supervisors meetings and some worksessions. “They said they were having a cash flow problem, and they wanted to keep OUR money to help mitigate THIER cash flow problem.
“Even their auditor told them that school money goes to schools. They said, ‘That’s NOT your money.’ End of sentence.”
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