Nye County officials were quickly referred to a drop in consolidated tax revenues in a presentation on the 2007-08 fiscal year audit by accountant Dan McArthur Tuesday.

The consolidated tax includes sales tax. Figures were down from $15 million in July 2007 to $13.46 million last summer.

If the county were run as a business, however, McArthur said, it still would have finished $11 million in the black.

Total revenues in all funds dropped $64,096 from $77 million to $76.9 million. Expenditures also rose from $60.8 million to $65.8 million, according to official audit figures.

Nye County started the fiscal year July 1, 2008 with a $3.34 million balance in the general fund, McArthur said. But in the general fund alone, which is used for most government functions, revenues dropped from $34.3 million to $33.7 million from the previous fiscal year. The main culprit was a drop in intergovernmental funds from $16.2 million to $14 million.

General fund expenditures dropped $606,719 from $35.7 million to $35.16 million, but McArthur noted that was largely due to a drop in the public safety budget from $17.6 million to $15.6 million.

The public safety budget the previous year included $3.47 million in capital outlays, largely due to the $2 million purchase of a microwave system from Harris Corp., linking Pahrump to Tonopah with a spur to Warm Springs.

Commissioners have become concerned lately over the balance in the payment equal to taxes funds from the U.S. Department of Energy. But McArthur's audit shows that, at least as of last July, a healthy $16.95 million balance sat in the capital projects PETT fund. That money is tapped for a number of large projects.

A few budgets ran over in the 2007-08 fiscal year, including a $316,495 overage in the medical indigent special revenue fund, McArthur said. That's due to a bill from the state for long-term indigent care that wasn't recognized until after the end of the year, he said.

The educational endowment special revenue fund ran over budget, with $1.1 million spent as opposed to only $300,000 budgeted, due to the repayment of a loan to the Nye County School District, McArthur said.

The Nye County treasurer is submitting monthly reports to county commissioners but not on a timely basis, McArthur said.

Money from the court administrative assessment fees was supposed to be used mainly for court improvements and training, but some expenditures went for other purposes, he told commissioners. Also, state statute indicates items costing over $50,000 should be advertised for bid. McArthur said there were exceptions to that rule in the justice court special revenue fund with improvements that cost $60,000 to $70,000.

McArthur' pointed out the county had $200,000 in one investment last June which devalued to only $20,000 today. But while McArthur had to report the loss, he said it wasn't a major concern when compared to a total of $119 million in county investments in corporate bonds and notes, U.S. government treasuries and money market mutual funds. County corporate bond investments all have at least A ratings from Moody's and Standard and Poors, he said.

McArthur said state law was changed to allow counties to participate in riskier investments with a longer maturity date.

"The county is allowed to invest in corporate bonds whereas in the past they were not allowed to invest," McArthur said. "In the past, your investments were backed by FDIC insurance or backed by some sort of U.S. treasury note or treasury bills," he said. "If you want to reduce your credit risk, you can."

Among other recommendations in McArthur's management letter, he suggested to county officials:

* Use work orders to control labor and materials on the job with a monthly review of those projects;

* A second person should look over financial reports submitted to a granting agency;

* A three-member security team should decide who has access to different processes and transactions instead of just the IT department;

* A second person should examine apportionment of investments in the investment pool, which includes money from the school district, towns and other entities, after $633,000 was incorrectly allocated to endowment funds;

* While Nevada Administrative Code requires listing assets worth over $3,000, the county should keep better track of assets under $3,000 during the employees annual performance interview or before retirements and resignations;

* County employees should be required to take annual vacations so another employee can do an annual control;

* Change travel and credit card reimbursement to make sure no expenditures are paid twice;

* An individual should be in charge of surplus assets instead of each department holding auctions;

* An information technology disaster recovery plan should be instituted so there's a backup of computer data in case of a cataclysm like a fire or earthquake;

* A large property tax refund this year should have been used to reduce property taxes, not to pay expenses;

* Proper followup is needed to make sure impact fees and other fees paid by developers are collected. There also should be steps taken to ensure money paid by developers into a fund is eventually used for the specified purpose.

* A Gabbs Utility Fund that provided discounts to senior citizens on their utility bills was an inappropriate use of taxpayer money. It should be an indigent matter.

Despite the recommendations, McArthur said there was a significant improvement in the county audit process this year. For one thing, the audit was ready much earlier -- in the past, it often wasn't ready until May.