Columbus – Auditor of State Dave Yost today announced that Bloom Township (Scioto County) has regained financial stability after spending more than 12 years in fiscal emergency.

The Auditor’s office placed the township in fiscal emergency on Aug. 9, 2005, after identifying deficit balances in two funds totaling $19,712 and $13,403 as of Dec. 31, 2004, and April 30, 2005, respectively.

“Years spent chipping away at a deficit takes a toll on a community,” Auditor Yost said. “Bloom Township’s citizens and leaders have stuck it out for more than a decade and today are finally rewarded for their perseverance.”

The township of 3,235 people managed to offset much of the deficit amount by shifting $8,000 into the general fund that was previously assigned to the road and bridge fund.

To cut costs, the township ended its practice of reimbursing employees for health and cancer insurance to save approximately $12,700 per year. 

The township also stopped renting space for meetings to save another $900 per year. 

Additional annual savings of $360 were achieved by reimbursing the township’s fiscal officer for the use of her personal phone instead of paying for an office phone. 

The township also had to satisfy the following requirements to be released 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 township 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