Camden County receives clean audit; board ratifies $5 million tax anticipation note after public concern

Auditors told the Camden County Board of Commissioners they issued an unmodified (clean) opinion on the county’s 2024 financial statements, and the board ratified a $5 million tax anticipation note (TAN) intended to cover temporary cash shortfalls caused by delayed tax bills.

Trey Scott, the partner who oversaw the audit from Malden & Jenkins’ Savannah office, reported a clean opinion and no audit findings, including under the single-audit requirements for federal grant spending. Scott said the county’s government‑wide net position was about $141 million and increased roughly $2.8 million in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024. He also said the county’s general fund balance rose and provides the equivalent of about five months of expenditures, a figure the Government Finance Officers Association cites as healthy.

Nancy Clark Gonzales, the county chief financial officer, explained the TAN during the meeting as a short-term borrowing tool that bridges the gap between expenditures and the later receipt of property-tax receipts. Gonzales said late tax‑bill mailings by the tax commissioner’s office resulted in slower-than-expected inflows. She told the board that, as of Jan. 2, county cash reserves had reached a low interim level of about $1,158,000 before the TAN posted, and that the tax commissioner remitted $1,800,000 the day before the meeting. Gonzales said a recent payroll distribution of about $1.1 million (roughly $900,000 drawn from the general fund) and accounts-payable of about $250,000 combined to produce the short-term need.

Gonzales said the TAN interest rate was 3.55% and that the county planned to move the TAN proceeds into the county’s LGIP account to earn investment income while the funds are available; she said LGIP yields in December were about 4.5% and the county would seek to repay the TAN no later than March 31, 2025, if tax receipts permit. Several members of the public criticized the TAN; one speaker called it a ‘‘payday loan’’ and said the county should have planned differently. Gonzales and other board members repeatedly noted that the tax commissioner is a constitutional officer outside the board’s direct control and that county staff and the tax commissioner were coordinating to avoid late bill mailings next year.

The board voted to ratify the issuance of the $5 million TAN. Commissioners also approved several motions earlier in the meeting that touch on county finance and administration, including reaffirming the employment contracts for the county administrator and county attorney and accepting a clean audit report presented by the auditors.