2 California Cities Still Late on Preparing Their Financial Audits for 2019

Commentary California has 482 cities and towns. They provide audited financial statements of their fiscal status every year, just like publicly traded companies and most businesses and nonprofits of significant stature. Finance hawks celebrated when the California State Auditor established a dashboard to review the fiscal status of the state’s cities and towns. The cheering subsided when just about everyone noted that some 50 cities were missing. The delinquents either simply failed to post their annual comprehensive financial reports (ACFRs) on their websites or (and this is more terrifying) never got around to filling out the legally required document at all. Obtaining these annual comprehensive financial reports is time consuming. That may be among the reasons the State Auditor recently pulled down this useful tool (see “California State Auditor Removes Fiscal Accountability Dashboard,” Nov. 21, 2023)....