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Taylor Releases Marion City School District from Fiscal Watch

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Marion County -

Auditor of State Mary Taylor today released the Marion City School District from fiscal watch. The district was placed in fiscal watch more than four years ago for failing to submit an acceptable plan to eliminate potential deficits for fiscal years 2004 and 2005.

The school district was placed in fiscal watch on March 26, 2004 due to its deteriorating financial condition and anticipated deficits for 2004 and 2005. On June 17, 2004, the Auditor of State declared the district in fiscal watch since school officials failed to submit an acceptable written proposal, as required by Ohio law, for correcting the conditions that led to the fiscal watch declaration.  The school district anticipated deficits of $360,000 and $2,645,000 for fiscal years 2004 and 2005, respectively.

The district successfully eliminated the issues that placed them in fiscal watch and school officials no longer project future deficits through fiscal year 2012.

In 2005, Auditor of State’s office developed a performance audit of Marion City School District.  The audit recommended ways for the district to improve the effectiveness of operations, save taxpayer dollars and make better use of existing resources. The performance audit made 29 recommendations to help the district to save more than $5.6 million annually.

The Auditor of State’s Local Government Services section serves as a consulting and fiscal advisory group to all governmental agencies and subdivisions. The section issues publications, accounting manuals and advisory bulletins to assist local governments with their duties.

A copy of the complete fiscal analysis is available online at http://www.auditor.state.oh.us/AuditSearch/Reports/2009/Marion_CSD_FW_Analysis_Marion.pdf

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The Ohio Auditor of State’s office is one of the largest accounting offices in the nation.  The office strives to ensure that all public funds are spent legally and appropriately and works aggressively to root out fraud, waste and abuse in public spending. Taylor encourages anyone suspecting fraud or misspending of public dollars to contact her office toll free at 866-FRAUD-OH (866-372-8364). Since taking office, Taylor has identified more than $19.8 million in public funds that were handled improperly, spent illegally or stolen and must be repaid.