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State auditor warns of recurring budget weaknesses as committee probes multimillion-dollar school deficits
Summary
The Assembly Education Committee heard the state auditor outline common failures — procurement, fund misclassification, late vendor payments and health-benefit shortfalls — that have contributed to multimillion-dollar structural deficits in several New Jersey districts and prompted calls for stronger county and state monitoring.
The Assembly Education Committee heard testimony from the state auditor that recent forensic and post audits of New Jersey school districts revealed recurring weaknesses in internal controls that have helped produce multimillion-dollar budget shortfalls.
State Auditor Dave Kashak told the panel the office has issued eight school-district reports under authority of the state constitution and titles 52 and 18A, and identified frequent problems including procurement lapses, misclassified expenditures between general and special revenue funds, errors on state aid applications and underestimated health benefit and payroll costs. "Sometimes expenditures have happened out of one fund that should have been out of another," Kashak said during his presentation.
Committee members pressed Kashak on whether the auditor’s work examines the state…
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