Macon County received a clean audit for its 2023-24 fiscal year and had its fund balance go up to $55 million before the Franklin High School and Highlands School projects began.
Jill Vang of Martin Starnes & Associates presented the highlights of the latest county audit at the Dec. 10 Macon County Board of Commissioners meeting. The audit has already been submitted and approved by the N.C. Local Government Commission.
There were no findings and the opinion was unmodified, the best possible opinion.
The county’s General Fund increased by $3,302,020, or 6.4% in 2023-24, to $55,006,221. It’s a slower increase than last year, when the general fund increased over $7 million.
Out of that $55 million, $49,373,025 is available to spend, an increase of $3.7 million from last year.
That number will be lower in the next audit as the county approved $8 million for the Highlands School building project, plus increased debt service payments for the $76.3 million loan the county took out to pay for the Franklin High School project. In total, County Finance Director Lori Carpenter said $20 million of the fund balance will be needed in the next few years to pay for those projects.
In 2024, general fund revenues increased by $1.4 million to $67,603,682 while expenditures increased by $2.6 million to $60,740,793.
The top general fund revenue source was ad valorem taxes at 52%, followed by local option sales tax at 21%, restricted intergovernmental at 13% and everything else (permits and fees, sales and services, investment income, etc.) accounted for the last 14%.
Sales tax decreased from $14,369,525 in 2023 to $13,975,529 in 2024.
Top expenditures were public safety (31%), human services (21%) and education (19%). The other 29% was from general government, transportation, cultural and recreation, debt service payments and more.
Public safety expenditures increased nearly a million from $17,974,908 to $18,802,146 while education decreased from $11,744,567 to $11,548,073.
Positive performance indicators were timely audit submission, having a healthy general fund available fund balance and a 98.63% tax valuation collection.