County auditor reports clean opinion for Marion County's 2025 financials

April Schwarz, an auditor with Barney, told the Marion County Commission on June 29 that the county's 2025 financial statements received a clean independent auditor's opinion under the Kansas (KAG) regulatory basis. "The third paragraph is your clean opinion," Schwarz said, adding auditors did not identify journal entries requiring correction and found no instances of management override at the county.

The auditor reviewed the fiscal-year totals and fund balances, noting the county began the year with roughly $14.5 million, collected more than budgeted receipts for some funds, and ended the year with an adjusted ending cash balance of $16,290,772 after reconciling encumbrances and payables. Schwarz highlighted debt details in the notes: the county had one outstanding GO bond (2022A), two new leases executed during the year (rescue equipment and a transfer-station backhoe), and principal and interest payments in line with amortization schedules.

Commissioners asked questions about specific counts and investment pools. Schwarz said auditing standards require auditors to consider management-override as a risk in every audit, "but we did not identify any issues at your county." Staff confirmed the audit and governance letter were included in the commissioners' packet and that the audit had been filed with the state.

What happens next: the commission received the audit and discussed midyear budget items and fund-level notes during the same meeting; any formal next steps from the audit presentation were limited to commissioners' review and taking the report into their budget deliberations.