Davis County controller says tax system cannot reconcile; urges formal year-end close and process overhaul

Davis County Controller Curtis Koch told the county's quarterly Audit Committee that the county's tax collection system cannot produce a reliable point-in-time balance or perform year-end closings, leaving the county to rely on so-called "plug" figures and ad hoc distributions.

Koch spoke during the committee's quarterly meeting, presenting a January 22 memo and a series of year-end bank reconciliations. "The system does not have the ability to give a point in time balance, does not have the ability to perform year end closing, and it has a limited ability to prevent, detect, and correct errors," Koch said. He told committee members the system had never been fully reconciled since launch.

The issue matters because tax distributions to taxing districts and other recipients depend on accurate, reconciled balances. Koch said Utah law requires a settlement process when a treasurer leaves office and noted the practical consequences of not reconciling: "A year's never been closed. So if that plug was false or fictitious for some reason and you go and correct an error because you never closed the year, you could have years and years and years of errors that ... were part of a plug number 10 years ago." Commissioner Lorraine Camilo, chairing the meeting, added that the memo is intended to "put a stake in the ground. Nobody can say they didn't know anymore."

Koch described…