St. Martinville – The St. Martin Parish Government received a clean bill of health in its annual audit, CPA Charles “Chip” Maraist of Maraist & Maraist told the Parish Council’s Finance/Administrative Committee at its meeting on Sept. 16.
Maraist said that the parish government re- ceived an "unmodified opinion” of the funds submitted for the audit, noting that the audit does not include audits of four to five indepen dent entities overseen by the parish government such as the hospital district and some of the waterworks and recreation districts in the parish.
"The financial state ments are fairly presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principals, but only as to the funds that you present in your financials," Mara ist said. “As we’ve discussed before, there are four or five parish enti ties that are considered to be component units of the St. Martin Parish Government.”
There were two minor findings in the agreed- upon procedures report instituted by the state Legislative Auditor’s Of- fice to implement "best practices and controls” of parish and municipal governments throughout the state.
Audit
“These would represent findings that are not severe enough to be of significant deficiency or material weakness to be mentioned in your general audit reports,” Maraist said. “What they want to do is foster increased compliance with best practices.”
Both findings related to timeliness, one regarding preparation of a bank reconciliation, and the other one being a deposit of cash receipts that was not done within one day. Best practices recommends that cash deposits be made the same day.
“So essentially it’s a pretty clean report opinion- wise,” Maraist said. “Now, what I tell people is just because your report is clean opinionwise, doesn’t mean it’s a good report. You may have some agencies and entities that are in severe financial distress. They could still get a clean outlook opinion. The opinion just tells you your statements are presented fairly.”
But that’s not the case for St. Martin Parish, which is in good financial standing also.
“If you take a look at your fund balances and your major revenue sources, the General Financial Officers Association recommends that your fund balances should be able to cover 60 to 90 days of operating expenditures in the event you have an interruption because of a catastrophe, a natural disaster, a plague, or whatever,” he said. “All of the St. Martin Parish Government’s general and special revenue funds have a minimum of 60 to 90 days. Some of them have in excess of a year. Some of them two years. All of your fund balances are quite sufficient to meet that criteria.”
The revenue sources also are strong with all ad valorem tax revenues for the general fund and all special tax revenue funds are increasing at a higher rate than the annual inflation rate, currently 2.5 percent. In the recent reassessment of taxes in the parish, revenues increased by 7.9 percent. Sales tax revenues went up about 8.3 percent, which was positively affected by online shopping that gives sales tax revenue to the location from which it is purchased.
Video poker revenues slipped about $120,000 in the fiscal year just completed, but that is a small amount of the $2.12 million revenues raised, he said.
ITEP issue
St. Martin Economic Development Authority Executive Director Jennifer Stelly asked the Finance/Administrative Committee to show its support for Aquaspersions’ application for an Industrial Tax Exemption.
The company had applied for the ITEP with the state but missed a deadline by a week when the company CFO had to resign because of a family emergency, and the state rescinded the tax exemption.
The company is looking to get the ITEP back and Stelly said SMEDA has supported virtually every effort to get those tax breaks, which offers an 80 percent property tax abatement for up to 10 years on a manufacturer’s new investment. Property taxes are not included in those tax exemptions, only taxes on equipment and facilities. Companies must meet jobs, payroll, and compliance components to qualify.
Council Chairman Chris Tauzin asked if the exemption would guarantee the company could stay in business, given that one of its leading purchasers in the parish had gone out of business.
Stelly said she did not know if the exemption would keep Aquaspersions open, but “I would like to give them every opportunity to do it and mitigate the risk of losing any more jobs than we already have in that area.”
The council would have to pass a resolution in support of the company’s application for the tax exemption, which it plans to take up at its next meeting. The parish school board also must pass such a resolution.
“It would be in the council’s best (interest to pass the resolution) to support this business that came here and invested money (so they don’t go out of business) just because of a simple mistake,” Tauzin said. “If they are salvageable and we can get this company up and running, it does bring tax revenue and jobs and salaries to this parish, so I would like the council to consider supporting this resolution in order to help them.”
Parish President Pete Delcambre said the council would have to take it up at its next meeting because of an early October deadline for the application, and parish attorney Lee Durio said the resolution will be prepared and the item placed on the agenda.
Other business
The Public Works Committee considered adopting a resolution authorizing a change order for a decrease of $94,814 on the Box Car Road roadside stabilization and road repair project by Diverse Solutions because a savings was found in materials for the project.
The Finance/Administrative Committee also considered adopting a resolution amending the parish government pay scale by eliminating the lower wage scales because no employees are in those scales.
The committee also considered adopting a resolution proclaiming Monday, Nov. 11, as Veterans Day in the parish.
