Madison County, Georgia

Overview

The auditor's report, dated November 30, 2023 and addressed to the Honorable Commissioners of Madison County, Georgia, gives an unmodified opinion: the FY2022 financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the County's financial position as of December 31, 2022. The audit notes two qualifications to that picture, both disclosed here: management omitted the Management's Discussion and Analysis that accounting standards require (the opinion on the statements themselves is not affected), and the Madison County Health Department component unit — 3% of assets, 2% of net position, 12% of revenues — was audited by other auditors, whose report the County's auditor relied on.

The County reports governmental activities (general government, judicial, public safety, public works, health and welfare, culture and recreation, economic development) and one business-type activity, the Solid Waste Fund (landfill postclosure care and the solid waste transfer station). Two discretely presented component units — the Industrial Development and Building Authority and the Board of Health — are shown in separate columns and are not included in the primary-government figures on this page.

In FY2022 the primary government as a whole lost net position: governmental activities fell $4,417,342 (from $186,280,119 to $181,862,777) while the Solid Waste Fund gained $79,122 (from a $33,440 deficit to $45,682), for a combined decrease of $4,338,220. The General Fund, by contrast, grew — see the General Fund section below. The difference is accrual accounting: governmental activities absorbed $11,858,642 of depreciation against only $1,698,941 of capital outlays, which is what drove the government-wide decline while fund balances rose.

Source: Madison County, Georgia FY2022 Annual Financial Report, Independent Auditor's Report and Statement of Activities — audited FY2022 report (PDF).

At a glance — FY2022 audited

Source: FY2022 audit, Statement of Net Position and General Fund Budget and Actual statement — audited FY2022 report (PDF).

Net position — December 31, 2022

Net position is what remains after liabilities and deferred inflows are subtracted from assets and deferred outflows. Each column below sums exactly to its total.

How net position moved in FY2022

Governmental change check: program revenues of $6,267,197 against expenses of $34,998,414 left a net cost of $28,731,217; general revenues of $24,547,304 (property tax $13,414,560 + sales tax $8,218,447 + other taxes $2,676,000 + interest $32,818 + miscellaneous $205,479) less the $233,429 transfer to Solid Waste gives −$28,731,217 + $24,547,304 − $233,429 = −$4,417,342.

Source: Statement of Net Position (pp. 4–5) and Statement of Activities (pp. 6–7) — audited FY2022 report (PDF).

General Fund — FY2022 actuals vs. final budget

The General Fund is the County's chief operating fund. It took in $23,531,668 against a final budget of $19,611,752, and spent $19,899,810 against a final budget of $18,449,448 — revenues well over budget and spending over budget too, but revenues covered expenditures by $3,631,858, so the fund balance grew even after $1,162,407 of net other-financing uses (mainly transfers out).

Revenues — $23,531,668

Expenditures — $19,899,810

Function detail behind those group totals (all actuals): public safety is the Sheriff's Office $3,026,535, Emergency Medical Service $2,460,329, Jail $2,258,249, Emergency Management $927,370, Animal Shelter $100,390 and Coroner $97,844; public works is Highways and Streets $1,228,814, Industrial Development and Building Authority $1,469,986 and Vehicle Maintenance $823,725.

Fund balance walk

Other financing detail: transfers in $28,700, transfers out $1,268,609, lease liabilities issued $55,472, proceeds from sale of capital assets $22,030 — net −$1,162,407.

Source: General Fund Statement of Revenues, Expenditures, and Changes in Fund Balance — Budget and Actual (pp. 14–16) — audited FY2022 report (PDF).

All governmental funds — FY2022

Beyond the General Fund, the County reports the 2020 SPLOST Fund, the LOST Fund, the American Rescue Plan Act Fund, and nonmajor governmental funds. Combined, the governmental funds grew by $4,055,303 in FY2022.

*The combined figure is the audited total minus the two individually verified funds ($37,664,722 − $26,300,699 − $2,209 = $11,361,814). The audit's own fund-by-fund balance-sheet page is a rotated scan whose individual SPLOST/LOST/nonmajor columns could not be read cleanly enough to sum-check, so those three funds are shown combined rather than guessed individually — the combined figure is exact by subtraction from the audited total.

The American Rescue Plan Act Fund itself is fully verified from its own budget-and-actual statement: revenues $427,036 (intergovernmental $425,764 + interest $1,272), expenditures $425,764, net change $1,272, beginning balance $937, ending balance $2,209.

Governmental activities — cost by function, FY2022

Source: Governmental Funds Balance Sheet (pp. 8–9), Reconciliation (p. 10), Statement of Revenues, Expenditures, and Changes in Fund Balances (pp. 11–12), Reconciliation to the Statement of Activities (p. 13), and American Rescue Plan Act Fund Budget and Actual statement — audited FY2022 report (PDF).

Solid Waste enterprise — FY2022

The Solid Waste Fund is the County's only business-type activity: landfill postclosure care plus the transfer station. It lost money on operations but ended the year in positive net position thanks to a $233,429 transfer from other funds — the same transfer shown as an outflow from governmental activities.

Operating revenues — $262,289

Operating expenses — $455,057

Net position walk

The audit notes the County expects the Solid Waste Fund to report operating losses funded through General Fund transfers for the foreseeable future. Fund assets at year-end were $137,924 (current assets $56,059 + capital assets, net $81,865) against liabilities of $87,813, including a $41,675 total postclosure liability ($8,335 current + $33,340 long-term).

Source: Proprietary Funds Statement of Net Position (pp. 17–18) and Statement of Revenues, Expenses, and Changes in Fund Net Position (p. 19) — audited FY2022 report (PDF).

Debt & capital assets

The reconciliation to the Statement of Activities shows why the government-wide picture fell while fund balances rose: capital outlays of $1,698,941 were far outweighed by depreciation of $11,858,642 in FY2022. The County also adopted GASB Statement No. 87 (Leases) effective January 1, 2022; the auditor's opinion is not modified on that point.

Source: Statement of Net Position (pp. 4–5) and Reconciliation of the Statement of Revenues, Expenditures, and Changes in Fund Balances to the Statement of Activities (p. 13) — audited FY2022 report (PDF).

Sources & notes

• Only source used: Madison County, Georgia, Annual Financial Report for the year ended December 31, 2022 (audited; auditor's report dated November 30, 2023, addressed to the Commissioners of Madison County, Georgia). Read the audit (PDF, UGA TED portal). The TED listing title carries "(In Process)" but the document itself is the signed audit, and its figures are used as printed.
• Dated basis, repeated: Figures from the FY2022 audit — the most recent verified audit available; newer figures were not verifiable. This page has no FY2023, FY2024 or later actuals and no current-year budget, and none were invented.
• Sum checks: every breakdown table on this page was added up before publishing; each shown total equals the sum of its shown parts, including the government-wide change (−$28,731,217 + $24,547,304 − $233,429 = −$4,417,342) and the General Fund walk ($23,831,248 + $3,631,858 − $1,162,407 = $26,300,699).
• What is missing / disclosed gaps: (1) the individual SPLOST/LOST/nonmajor ending balances are shown combined, not separately, because the audit's rotated fund balance-sheet scan could not be read cleanly enough to sum-check the individual columns — the combined figure is exact by subtraction from the audited total; (2) component-unit figures (Industrial Development Authority, Health Department) are excluded from every primary-government figure on this page by design; (3) no population, staffing, or service-level figures are included — the audit does not supply them in a form used here.
• County palette: no high- or medium-confidence Madison County palette was on file, so this page uses the neutral Peach State Pulse dark-glass theme rather than a county color.
• Identity: this is Madison County, Georgia (northeast Georgia, county seat Danielsville) — not Madison County in any other state.

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