Rowan County auditor issues clean opinion on FY2024; commissioners approve Local Government Commission response letter

Tanya Thompson, an auditor from the county—s audit firm, told the Rowan County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 6, 2025, that the auditor—s report for fiscal year 2024 received an unmodified (clean) opinion: "we believe these are the correct numbers," Thompson said.

Thompson presented key measures of the county—s financial health, saying revenues rose by about $24.5 million over the prior year and expenditures rose by about $16.4 million. She said the general-fund ending fund balance increased to a little more than $154,000,000 and that a statutory calculation of available fund balance rose to 71.1% of net expenditures, well above the Local Government Commission—s monitoring benchmark for counties of the same size (16%).

The presentation attributed the revenue and expenditure changes to several factors: a notable increase in property-tax revenue (an increase of about $19.8 million, or 20.4%, tied to revaluation), a small decline in local option sales tax (about $1.1 million, or 2.6%), capital purchases for public safety and staffing changes tied to Medicaid expansion. Thompson identified public safety as the largest general-fund expenditure category (about 29%) and said capital purchases during the year included EMS radios (about $8,000,000), ambulances and sheriff's equipment. She summarized the audit work: "We test transactions. We test balances. We test compliance," and said the procedures covered programs including DSS, public health and ARPA spending.

Thompson noted a few performance and compliance items the county must address. The Water Fund reported operating losses that require a management response to the Local Government Commission (LGC). The audit also disclosed an immaterial statutory budget violation in the fines-and-forfeitures fund (about $10,000), which must be reported and addressed even though the auditor did not classify it as a material finding. Thompson said a written response to the LGC is required within 60 days of the audit presentation and "should be signed by the majority of board members, the county manager, and the finance officer."

Commissioners discussed some budget drivers and asked whether Medicaid expansion contributed to increased DSS costs; Thompson said expansion contributed to both additional revenues and higher DSS staffing and related expenditures. After the auditor—s presentation the board voted to approve the LGC response letter the staff had circulated during the meeting. When asked, "So in a word, we're in good shape?" Thompson replied, "Yes. In good shape." The motion to approve the letter passed with the board saying "aye" during the roll call.

What this means: the audit provides the county a clean, GAAP-based opinion for FY2024 and confirms strong fund-balance metrics, but it also requires the county to file a written response to the LGC on specific items such as the Water Fund performance indicator and the disclosed budget violation.

Provenance: first presentation by the auditor begins at transcript block starting s=571.975 (auditor remarks); related discussion and LGC letter approval concluded at transcript block around s=1652.84 (motion and vote to approve the letter).