WALLACE –– Shoshone County is one step closer to figuring out what may have caused roughly $3 million in overspending over the past few years.  

On Monday morning, the Shoshone Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) approved an additional $6,500 to meet the $11,500 estimate that was given by Eide Bailly LLP, a certified public accountant and business advisory firm that also specializes in government audits. 

The funds came from the county’s remaining LATCF funds, an extension of funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The BOCC had allocated $5,000 previously, when it became apparent that they would need an outside audit, but weren’t sure what the costs would be.  

It was in August of this year, as Shoshone County’s elected officials and department heads were preparing their annual budgets when some of the numbers just weren’t adding up right. 

After taking another look, the BOCC realized that the county, over the course of three years, had overspent more than $3 million against their recorded revenue. 

What Eide Bailly will be doing, is a deep analysis of the county’s financial statements from 2018 through 2022.

According to Commissioner Jeff Zimmerman, who has been tasked with handling the audit, the plan from Eide Bailly is pretty cut and dry. 

“They’re here to try and determine the cause of the deterioration of financial resources which required the sale of property, increased property taxes, and carried forward cash balances that we had to do to make this (2023) budget work,” Zimmerman said. 

As mentioned, the county was able to get a budget passed before the state’s deadline in September, however, it required a 3% property tax increase, nearly $2 million from the recent sale of county-owned property to Maverik, as well as $53,000 in foregone balance monies – This came after the original proposed budget was slashed by more than $1 million. 

Once the BOCC green lights Eide Bailly to begin the audit, they estimate that it should take 40-50 hours to complete. 

During the audit, all county employees and elected officials may be subject to interview, should the auditors feel that they would need additional information that doesn’t exist within the financial records. 

There are numerous possibilities of why the budgets could be off, both Zimmerman and board chairman Dave Dose are hopeful that the audit can show where any potential mistakes happened and how they can avoid making the same mistakes again. 

“This is a fact-finding mission. We have to figure out how the error occurred so we can start turning it around,” Dose said. “It’s like a big ship – it’s gonna take a little while to turn.” 

In the meantime, Dose and Zimmerman have already begun speaking with the other elected officials and department heads to see if there are potential revenue streams that the county can tap into.