Shoshone County officials review annual audit

WALLACE –– Elected officials and department heads throughout Shoshone County met with auditor Tony Matson on Monday to review the county’s annual audit.  

According to Matson, after reviewing the county’s financials from fiscal year 2023, Shoshone County is in “reasonable shape,” and in “A better spot than they were at the beginning 2023.”  

Matson revealed that this audit was more challenging due to several changes within the county clerk’s office during the past year, but overall, he said that the county was still in a positive position.  

Commissioner Dave Dose was pleased with Matson’s report after months of discussions over potentially facing a multimillion-dollar shortfall that was discovered last August when they attempted to finalize and pass their annual budget.   

“I’m taking this as a positive,” Dose said. “Some things still don’t add up and we still don’t have all the answers. Our best hope now is that the forthcoming results of our forensic audit will show where any potential errors were made.”  

Reportedly, the county faced a $1.7 million deficit during its 2023/24 budget process. According to Dose, that estimate was inaccurate, and the deficit could be significantly less.  

This is good news for the various department heads as the county heads into another round of annual budgets.  

“It was probably good that we tightened the purse strings the way that we did,” Dose said. “But we might not have to cut like we did a year ago.”  

Last year, the board led several meetings where over a million dollars were cut from various departments’ budget proposals. 

Dose said that the board would be watching the county’s justice fund closely due to many factors. The justice fund comprises the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office, jail, public safety building, and public defense and in 2023/24 it made up more than 34% of the county’s annual budget.  

The money in the justice fund is levied independently of other county dollars, but it also spread out over multiple entities, including equipment and vehicles, as well as salaries and wages.  

“The sheriff has to live within what is in the justice fund,” Dose said. “Crime is up 19% and our county is being bombarded from the outside with crime including significant drug crimes.”  

Dose wants no part of cutting wages or jobs but acknowledges that the county cannot budget for what they can’t afford.  

“We all want to do right by our employees,” Dose said. “We see grocery prices and the costs of everything and I can tell you that absolutely none of our employees are being overpaid.”  

The county recently approved a wage study to provide them with data from around the state that will show where they are and are not competitive regarding wages and benefits.  

No official meeting has been scheduled for the results of the county’s forensic audit, but Dose believes it could be soon.