An audit found no problems with the report.
Frederick, Md (KM). When it comes to finances, Frederick County Government is in good shape. That’s the conclusion of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report presented to the County Council on Tuesday.
“The County’s net position increased by 33.7-million during fiscal year ’17. This increase is due to a governmental activities decrease of 5.8-million and an increase in the net position of business-type activities of 39.5-million,” says Lori Depies, the County’s Director of Finance.
She also said the county’s property tax revenue went up to $293.5-million dollars in fiscal year 2017, which ended on June 30th, and that;s up from $282.4-million from fiscal year 2016. The report says real property assessed values climbed by 4% in fiscal 2017.
Another big source of tax revenue, the income tax, went down from $203.4-million in fiscal year 2016 to $2.2.9-million in fiscal 2017. The financial report says income tax is budgeted at $206.9-million in fiscal year 2018/
“Capital grants and contributions decreased from $14.8 million in f-y 16 to $11.5-million in f-y 17,” says Depies. “Of this amount, $.4.8-million is in the public works area, the latest federal highway grants for capital projects, and $1.2-million is from the public safety area,” says Depies.
She says this decline was made up with $2.5-million dollars in state funds to preserve farmland.
The Financial report was audited by SB & Company LLC, a firm of licensed certified public accountants. “We didn’t discover any instances of fraud,” says Chris Lehman, with S & B. “Financial statement isn’t a fraud audit, but we’re required to have skepticism that fraud could happen by anyone at anytime.”
He also gave the report some other good marks. “We didn’t discover any instances of material weaknesses in any of the internal controls,” says Lehman. “We received the full cooperation of management. So any questions we had we got answers for or documentation. We got adequate support and backup for those transactions.”
By Kevin McManus