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Budget finance committee approves August financial statements, highlights revenue timing and low local-option sales tax
Summary
The Budget Finance Committee approved trustee cash-balance statements and financial summaries while staff and members discussed the difference between cash-on-hand and fund balance, lagged revenue timing (including local-option sales tax) and ambulance patient-revenue posting.
The Budget Finance Committee approved trustee cash-balance statements and financial summaries after a review of August figures and a discussion about how revenues are recorded and when they appear in county accounts. Members also noted a lower-than-expected local-option sales tax figure and timing differences in ambulance patient revenue.
Committee members voted to approve the trustee cash-balance statements after staff reviewed the account balances. "That that is not a fund balance number. That is the what is in the bank for that account," a finance staff member said during the meeting, clarifying that the column labeled "cash balance" reflects the bank account balance rather than the formal fund balance used in budget accounting.
Why this matters: Fund balance and cash-on-hand are distinct measures used in county budgeting; misreading cash balances as available fund balance can give the misleading impression of available resources. Committee members pressed staff about revenue timing, and staff said many county revenues are received one to two months after they are earned or collected, which can make current-month reports look "skewed." "Your revenue comes in 1 month, but we won't get it to the county until the first or second day of the next month. So it just looks skewed," the finance staff member said.
During the review, a committee member raised the local-option sales tax, noting it appeared low at about $3,000. A staff member said they planned to research the discrepancy and suspected it might need to be moved back into accounts receivable because some receipts had not yet posted.
Committee members also asked about ambulance fund revenues. A member referenced an EMS report cited at a prior meeting with a patient-revenue figure that appeared higher than what the current finance report showed. A staff member responded that some July and August receipts are for the prior fiscal year and must be moved back into accounts receivable, explaining the apparent shortfall in the current report.
The committee approved the cash-balance statements and the August financial summaries by voice vote. No roll-call tallies were recorded in the transcript. Members said they would follow up with staff on the local-option sales tax discrepancy and the ambulance revenue posting to reconcile accounts.
Less critical details: Committee members reviewed other funds (solid waste, highway, general purpose) during the same meeting but raised no substantive objections to those reports.
Next steps: Staff will research the local-option sales tax variance and adjust receivables where appropriate; staff will also reconcile ambulance patient revenues that straddle fiscal years.
