Citizen Gary Copeland called the county on the carpet last week for its overspending and questioned its ability to pay its bills.

“Over the past seven years,”

he said,

“we overspent every year.”

Copeland went on to say that in 2011, the county overspent $4 million more than it budgeted. He also highlighted the county has exhausted its reserves and now has a $6 million TAN to pay back by year end. “

The TAN will never be paid off,”

he said,

“It will just be delayed every year into the next year until we get our spending problem under control.”

With this scenario, he then pressed on the county’s ability to pay its bills. County CFO Faye Harvey said next month the board will submit a budget amendment for approval that will cut $500,000. Copeland commented, though, the amount is insufficient in the face $4 million. Commission Chair Robert Jones and Harvey agreed the only way to correct the budgetary problems is to cut the spending.

“Reduce budgets,”

Harvey said,

“That’s the only way we’ll be able to build the fund balance back up.”

Jones said the new financial policy will help reduce spending. The policy prevents the CFO from approving any item not budgeted. Another effort to curtail spending is a new project where the county will compile a historical overview of the county’s finances, going back to 2005-2006.

“With all the focus and discussion of the county finances in the recent months,”

Jones said,

“I think we would benefit from a historical overview of the county’s finances.”

Specifically, Jones’ vision for the overview or internal audit would entail an examination of the county’s sources of revenues, expenses, trends in the fund balance and changes in the county’s TAN (Tax Anticipated Note) loans over the years.

Although the other commissioners approved the move, District Two Commissioner Becky Denney was concerned about the added workload for Harvey. Harvey implied the project was an attainable goal, but said that it would take some time. She went on to explain she would soon prepare the county’s finances for its annual external audit, which has a June 30th deadline. After this time, she said, she would have to time to begin the project.

One citizen, though, seemed skeptical about the county launching an internal audit to investigate its own financial problems, suggesting the result would have the tendency to be biased. However, Jones said this was the most economical means of isolating areas that are overspending, saying an external forensic audit would cost Pickens County Taxpayers $100,000. Forensic audits, he added, are only conducted when an illegality is detected, saying no illegalities have been detected in any of the county’s annual or transitional audits.