Court orders special outside audit of tax office

Although Monday’s meeting of the Milam County Commissioners Court was the first of 2016, the meeting’s discussions and actions centered on the events of last year.
Milam County Judge David Barkemeyer reviewed the financial status of the county at the beginning of the meeting. He focused on the general fund first – the general fund is everything except the finances for the four road and bridge precincts.
Although the 2015 budget counted $900,000 of reserve funds as part of the budgeted income, the reserves weren’t needed because other income exceeded expectations by $427,600 and the total expenditures were $578,700 less than budgeted.
The end-result was that the county was able to protect the general fund reserve account – and even add $106,300 to it. The county starts 2016 with $826,000 in the general fund reserve – instead of zero as predicted when the 2015 budget was approved.
The better than expected financial outcome for 2015 caused Barkemeyer to say: “Thanks to everybody – an excellent job.”
Two agenda items were linked to the Kolette Morgan felony case – the investigation by investigators for the county attorney and Texas attorney general is still ongoing. Barkemeyer said that the citizens of Milam County want to know what the former Milam County Tax Assessor-Collector did. He said that he believes that a special auditor will be able to provide that information to the public.
On Monday, Redington reported on a conference call with representatives of Atchley & Associates about a tentative proposal for an audit, with work to begin the first week in February
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