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Pickens County audit finds clean opinion; commissioners approve FY2025 budget amendments and audit cleanup recommendation
Summary
An independent auditor gave Pickens County a clean FY2025 opinion, highlighting $10 million in unassigned General Fund balance and recommending a $2.79 million interfund balance write-off; the Board approved FY2025 budget amendments.
The Pickens County Board of Commissioners approved FY2025 budget amendments on June 15 after hearing the County's independent auditor report an unmodified (clean) audit opinion for the year.
Sam Latimer of Rushton, the county's independent auditor, told the Board the financial statements were presented fairly under applicable standards and highlighted growth in property tax revenues and strong SPLOST collections. Latimer said the county maintains approximately $10 million in unassigned General Fund balance, about three months of operating expenditures, and noted enterprise funds (Airport and Water) showed accounting losses driven mainly by non-cash depreciation; excluding depreciation, those funds had positive operating cash flow.
Latimer recommended the County address a long-standing interfund balance of approximately $2.79 million dating to 2014, suggesting the balances be written off as a bookkeeping cleanup during the FY2026 audit to clarify ongoing financial statements. Chairman Kris Stancil and Commissioner Josh Tippens approved the budget amendments following the presentation; no immediate cash impact was reported.
The Board approved the budget amendments to align revenues and expenditures with finalized audit adjustments and to ensure consistency with the FY2025 audit report. Finance Director Miranda McDowell told the Board the amendments reflect departments and accounts slightly over or under budget and are part of the standard year-end closing process.
The audit also produced a clean federal grant compliance opinion with no findings related to federal funding programs. The Board expressed appreciation to County staff and Rushton for their work on the audit. The audit is dated June 5, 2026; the Board indicated the interfund write-off discussion will be handled as part of the FY2026 audit process.
