Columbus – During a visit to the village today, Auditor of State Dave Yost released Bethel (Clermont County) from fiscal emergency, a status it has held since 2010.

“The Village of Bethel knows the true meaning of sacrifice,” Auditor Yost said.  “When push came to shove, village officials and employees made tough choices without digging into taxpayers’ pockets.”

The Village of Bethel was placed in fiscal emergency on August 24, 2010 due to deficit fund balances in four funds.

To eliminate its fiscal emergency status, village officials enacted several expenditure reduction measures, including reducing the number of full-time police officers.  Going from five full-time officers to two full-time and two part-time officers saved the village $253,000 from 2010 through 2012.  The village has since added one full-time police officer.  Overtime was reduced in the police department for a savings of $15,000.

The village also limited appropriations for all funds to 85% of expected revenues. In doing so, the general fund balanced increased a total of $466,200 from 2010 through 2012.  Village employees did not receive salary increases for 2010, 2011 and 2012.

To be released from fiscal emergency, the City of Bethel met the following criteria:

• Adopted and implemented an effective financial accounting and reporting system;
• Corrected or eliminated all of the fiscal emergency conditions and no new conditions have occurred, and it appears that, based on its five-year forecast, the City of Campbell will remain out of fiscal emergency during the forecast period;
• Met the major objectives of the financial recovery plan; and
• 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 may be accessed 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 5,700 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:
Carrie Bartunek
Press Secretary
614-644-1111