Montgomery County auditor gives clean opinion; federal testing remains pending

The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 12 heard an annual comprehensive financial report from auditor John Aldridge of Brown Edwards and Company, who said the county received an unmodified, or clean, audit opinion for fiscal year 2025 while noting one outstanding item: federal award testing.

Aldridge told the board that "the audit is finished except for 1 piece" — the federal expenditures portion — because "the federal government ... went on a shutdown for a little while" and the required compliance supplement was delayed. He said that once the guidance was issued in December, the auditors would complete federal testing and produce a single printed report for the board.

The auditor highlighted several large numbers in the report. He said the county shows about $183,000,000 in long-term liabilities on its books and that the county’s pension liability is about $13,600,000 compared with roughly $64,000,000 recorded for the schools. Aldridge also pointed to the county’s unassigned general fund balance of $36,900,000, which he estimated amounts to about 2.59 months of reserves (down from roughly 3.6 months the prior year).

On revenues and expenditures, Aldridge showed the board the general fund revenue figure of roughly $181,000,000 (actual receipts cited at $177,000,000) and said the county spent about $168,000,000 against a budgeted $186,000,000. He flagged education as the largest growth area, noting the school budget moved from an initial $61,100,000 to about $68,000,000 during the year.

Aldridge summarized the county’s debt at year-end as about $200,000,000, including $114,000,000 in general obligation bonds and $49,000,000 of refunding bonds. He explained most of that debt is school-related and therefore appears on the county’s financial statements. He also recommended the board keep an eye on finance staffing and segregation of duties; the audit found the county resolved one of seven prior comments, leaving six outstanding control observations.

Supervisors asked questions about reserves and comparators. Supervisor Grama asked how Montgomery compares with similar localities; Aldridge said comparables range widely but cited Rockingham County at about four months as a useful point of reference. The board thanked Aldridge and county finance staff for the timely work.

The auditor and staff said they will complete federal testing now that the compliance guidance is available and return an updated printed report to the board; no additional formal actions on the audit were taken at the meeting.