On March 27, 2017 the Llano County Commissioner’s Court was presented with the audited results for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016.
I am pleased to advise that our auditor, Singleton, Clark and Co. Certified Public Accountants, not only advised that in their opinion the Llano County financial statements were presented fairly in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the USA, but also that this was the best audit report ever delivered by Mr. Clark in his 40 years of experience and referred to it as excellent.
The fiscal year ending September 30, 2016 resulted in a positive variance to the budget of $1,350,000. This was due to more revenue received than projected of $400,000 and $950,000 less expenditures than budgeted on an operating budget of $13.3 million.
The county holds reserves for unexpected expenses and to pay operating costs for the three months from the end of the fiscal year to year end when property taxes are paid. At the end of the 2016 fiscal year this reserve was $5.6 million, an increase of $1.4 million from the budgeted ending reserve of $4.2 million.
It should also be noted that the 2017 Llano County property tax rate of 30.459 cents per $100 of taxable property value has not increased in the past 3 years and at the last survey in 2015 Llano County was the 13th lowest county property tax rate in the State of Texas. Of the 254 counties in the State of Texas 95% have a higher county property tax rate than Llano County.
Llano County also paid off all bond obligations in February 2017.
This positive audit and excellent financial condition of Llano County is the result of the cooperative effort by county elected officials and staff with particular recognition to Llano County Auditor, Cindy Lent and our Llano County Judge, Mary Cunningham.
(Numbers quoted are rounded for ease of understanding)
Peter Jones
Llano County Commissioner Pct 1
P.O. Box 8759
101 Ferguson Rd.
Email: commpct1@co.llano.tx.us
Bus phn: 830-598-2296
Cell: 830-385-3292
Fax: 830-598-5231