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Finance update: Act 1 index set at 3.5%; audit underway and district adopts CSIU reporting for forecasts
Summary
Finance staff reported the Act 1 index at 3.5%, flagged more than $50 million in properties under assessment appeal, said the external audit work has begun, and recommended moving to CSIU reporting to address discrepancies with Forecast5.
Finance staff told the Operations & Finance Committee on Sept. 10 that the state Act 1 index was published at 3.5% for the year and walked members through audit and forecasting updates.
Dawn told the committee: "It is 3.5% for this year," and cautioned that the district has received a new round of assessment appeals, saying, "We have over $50,000,000 of properties that are coming up right now," which could affect assessed values and revenue forecasts depending on appeal outcomes.
Dawn also gave an audit update: staff "officially start[ed] the audit" and are preparing requested documents and working with auditors to complete fieldwork, ideally before Thanksgiving. She said the district was 90% through requested items and is aiming to minimize in‑person days by having documents ready when auditors arrive.
On forecasting, staff compared Forecast5 and CSIU exports and explained why the two reports differed: pass‑through federal funds can be coded differently and Forecast5 produces a frozen snapshot of a month that must be reuploaded if subsequent corrections occur, while CSIU pulls live month‑end data and updates encumbrances and post‑period corrections automatically. Dawn said adopting CSIU will reduce recurring monthly rework and better align state reporting: "CSIU codes follow the PDE chart of account and the state reporting requirements pretty much to the T."
Staff said they will continue to refine salary and contract assumptions in the five‑year model and provide additional scenario modeling as requested by board members.
