Columbus – Auditor of State Dave Yost today released the Village of West Mansfield (Logan County) from fiscal emergency after local officials took steps to put the village back on a sound financial footing.

“Congratulations to village residents and their elected leaders,” Auditor Yost said. “Over the past eight years, they have made the tough choices necessary to balance their books and maintain fiscal health.”

The village was placed in fiscal emergency on Aug. 13, 2009, because of deficit balances in four funds and a treasury deficit.

To eliminate these problems, the village of 474 residents passed a 1 percent income tax levy and contracted with the Regional Income Tax Agency for tax administration services to reduce administrative costs. The levy raises about $112,000 annually. The village also increased water and sewer rates to eliminate deficits in the related funds.

The village also had to satisfy the following requirements to be terminated from fiscal emergency:

1. Adopted and implemented an effective financial accounting and reporting system;
2. Corrected or eliminated all of the fiscal emergency conditions; no new conditions have occurred, and it appears that, based on the five-year forecast, the village will remain out of fiscal emergency during the forecast period;
3. Met the major objectives of the financial recovery plan; and
4. Prepared a five-year forecast in accordance with standards issued by the Auditor of State, and the opinion expressed by the Auditor of State is “nonadverse.”
   
   

A full copy of this fiscal emergency termination is available online. 

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The Auditor of State’s office, one of five independently elected statewide offices in Ohio, is responsible for auditing more than 5,900 state and local government agencies.  Under the direction of Auditor Dave Yost, the office also provides financial services to local governments, investigates and prevents fraud in public agencies and promotes transparency in government.

Contact:
Beth Gianforcaro
Press Secretary
614-644-1111