COURTLAND
Fiscally speaking, the Southampton County Board of Supervisors received good news concerning its financial well-being during the Fiscal Year 2017 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. On Monday night, Kimberly Jackson, a certified public accountant with Creedle, Jones & Alga, P.C., gave a summary of the detailed findings.

County Administrator Michael Johnson reminded the board that “he audit is only a snapshot of the County’s financial position on June 30, 2017 — there have been a number of changes since that time which are not reflected in the audit.”

Jackson pointed out the following:

• In the general fund, overall, the county collected $800,802 more revenue than budgeted.

• In the General Fund, actual spending was $803,468 less than budgeted. Department savings greater than $25,000 each was achieved by the Commissioner of the Revenue, Data Processing, Victim-Witness Office, Courthouse Security, Detention, Inspections, Refuse Disposal, Buildings & Grounds, Comprehensive Services Act and Planning.

• The school board underspent its local budget by $5,631.

• The end of year general fund balance increased by $803,022 and is currently at $6,154,109. This unappropriated balance equates to roughly 18.6 percent of the total general fund expenditures, including transfers, which slightly exceeds the recommendation of the Government Finance Officers Association to maintain at least two months of general fund operating expenditures in reserve (16.67 percent.) The FY 2018 budget provided for $150,770 to come from the unappropriated general fund reserve.

The full details can be found under the board’s current agenda on the county website, www.southamptoncounty.org.

Speaking of finances, the board unanimously passed two resolutions to appropriate money. The first was for $233,619.62 in revenue from various sources to go to the Southampton County Public Schools. The second was for $228,898.86, which comes from a combination of expenditure refunds, reimbursements and grants, and goes toward the general fund.