Pike County Approves Pay For Backlog of Audits, Working Through FY25 Budget Shortfall

By Benjamin Cox on February 5, 2025 at 5:16am

The Pike County government is trying to set its financial house in order.

The Pike Press reports that the county board approved paying nearly $300,000 to Springfield auditor Sikich LLP to perform the backlog of 3 financial audits that have failed to take place over the previous 3 fiscal years. By law, a county or municipality must file a fiscal audit with the State of Illinois each year to be eligible for state aid. Currently, Pike County remains on the Comptroller’s “do not pay” list.

According to the report, the money to pay for the audits is coming out of the funds from the Pike County Highway Department that was paid by the developers of the new Panther Creek Wind Farm near Pittsfield. The audits are expected to be completed by the end of the year.

The Pike County Board is also in the midst of tackling a fiscal year 2025 budget shortfall. The Pike County Treasurer’s office was authorized to take out a loan to cover the county’s retirement and general fund while county department heads are being asked to slash budgets. The shortfall is approximately $206,000.

The board approved a 5% tax levy increase at its December meeting as one of the ways to help cover some of the shortfall. The board is expected to continue discuss ways to further drawn down individual department budgets over the next few months.