Harold, the county’s independent auditor, presented the Miami County audit at the commission’s July 23 study session and summarized financial results, compliance testing and audit opinions.
Harold said the county opted to present financial statements on the statutory basis of accounting under the Kansas Municipal Audit and Accounting Guide (KMAG) rather than generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). "You're not in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. However, you are in accordance with the regulatory basis of accounting, which is sometimes referred to as Kansas Municipal Audit and Accounting Guide or KMAG," he said, and added his firm issued an unmodified (clean) opinion on the statutory-basis financial statements.
Key figures Harold reported from the audit: the county’s overall fund balance rose about $614,000 year over year; the general fund was down roughly $13,000 despite transfers of about $3.3 million to other funds; the county’s ARPA (federal pandemic) fund was largely spent down; and long-term debt decreased by about $1.94 million to roughly $17.0 million at year-end, with scheduled payments continuing through 2039.
Harold also highlighted the pension-note disclosures and reported net pension liabilities of about $8,340,149 for the regular KPERS plan and about $12,090,000 for the Kansas police-and-fire plan; he noted those are long-range actuarial valuations and not amounts payable in a single year.
On federal funding and compliance, Harold said the county’s federal expenditures exceeded the single-audit threshold for prior years and that the audit included a single-audit compliance review focused on ARPA. "Based on the testing we perform, we do not find any issues that would require us to tell you that there's a deficiency in internal control or a material weakness," he said, and the audit found no compliance issues for the federal awards tested.
Commissioners asked about recommended reserve levels and whether a statutory minimum exists. Harold and county staff said there is no statutory percentage requirement; Harold described a common practice of maintaining roughly 90–120 days of operating expenditures (roughly three months) as a prudent target and explained his simple rule of thumb: divide annual expenditures by 12 and multiply by three. Harold noted that Miami County’s unencumbered general-fund balance was about $5,000,005 and that the three-month guideline would be roughly $6,000,000 based on current expenditures, placing the county slightly under that illustrative target.
Harold pointed out accounting anomalies that produced negative balances in specific funds: the motor-vehicle operating fund showed a negative unencumbered cash position because the county had to make expenditures before receiving state reimbursements; juvenile-justice and community-corrections fund balances reflected state reimbursement timing that will reverse when the state returns funds in the next fiscal cycle.
County officials and commissioners thanked Harold and staff for the work on ARPA compliance and day-to-day accounting. The study-session transcript shows discussion and clarifying questions but no formal commission action on the audit report during the session.