Commission Orders Review After 4¢ Fuel-tax Receipts Fall About $100,000

County leaders flagged a roughly $100,000 decline in receipts from the county’s 4¢ fuel tax and said the trend has persisted long enough to merit a closer audit. The chair said the county had asked for an audit two years earlier and that auditors had difficulty reconciling the receipts, prompting a follow-up meeting and a plan to share data with municipal auditors to isolate discrepancies. “We think something's wrong,” the chair said; commissioners said they will enlist auditors and compare municipal audit records to the county’s figures to identify where collections or reporting shifted.

Commissioners discussed possible causes, including changes to state collection methods (collection “at the rack” rather than at point-of-sale) and growth patterns that move sales across county lines. One commissioner suggested comparing receipts from new large retail fuel sellers; another recommended sharing municipal auditors’ data with the county audit team. The commission agreed to follow up and to make the audit findings available to municipal finance officers so they can reconcile budgets if needed.