Decatur School Administration Broke State Law by Spending More From Funds Than Appropriated by Board

Previously I have reported that the MSD Decatur Township School Board violated state law by purchasing 4 properties without the required appraisals of fair market value and that the District has a long standing pattern of loose accounting for credit card use - information gleaned from the public documentation of audits of the District's books by the State Board of Accounts and published in 2006 (covering July 1, 2003-June 30, 2005) and in 2008 (covering July 1, 2005-June 30, 2007).

Today I pull in from these two audits the fact that the School District Administration, headed by Superintendent Don Stinson, has routinely spent more money than the School Board appropriated in various funds during the annual budget process. This is a clear and disturbing violation of Indiana State Law.

From the audits reported in 2006 and 2008, we find that the Administration

-- in 2003, overspent the budget appropriation in one fund by $57,235

-- in 2004, overspent the budget appropriation in another fund by $360,384

-- in 2005, overspent the budget appropriation in several funds by an aggregate amount of $1,481,418

-- and

-- in 2006, overspent the budget appropriation in several funds by an aggregate amount of $2,355,728.

You will note the alarming rise in the amount of the overspent quantity. Superintendent Stinson and Assistant Superintendent for Business Jeff Baer clearly overstepped their authority and violated state law in doing so.

This law is not a bit of minutia pulled from an obscure section of State Law that few know about. It is the fundamental basis for all budget processes each and every year; undertaken by all units of government in full view of the public. The process is in place so that the public has the ability to review, give input, and protest if they choose, the budget of every governmental unit that impacts their wallet or purse. The process also puts the budget squarely in the hands of those responsible for it and its effect on taxes - the elected officials; in this case the elected School Board. Once the budget is in place and the tax rate approved, there is a mechanism available to add or change appropriations. But, unless that alternate process is followed, spending more than is appropriated to each fund is a violation of State Law. Stinson and Baer didn't bother. They just spent the money without going through the public process created to protect the public from possible nefarious aims of those whose hands rule the public coffers.

Every Decatur taxpayer and every elected School Board member should be very alarmed at this practice and the pattern of ever increasing brazenness in spending larger and larger amounts outside of the budget and appropriation process - and thereby in violation of State Law.

Here is what the audit from 2006 had to say:

The records presented for audit indicated the expenditures were in excess of budgeted appropriations for the General Fund in 2004 by $360,384 and the Transportation Operating Fund in 2003 by $57,235.

Indiana Code 6-1.1-18-4 states in part: "... the proper officers of a political subdivision shall appropriate funds in such a manner that the expenditures for a year do not exceed its budget for that year as finally determined under this article."

And the audit from 2008 says:

The records presented for audit indicated the following expenditures in excess of budgeted appropriations:

Fund	2005	2006
General	$ -	$ 188,692
Transportation Operating	539,487	1,121,124
Rainy Day	311,915	763,388
Capital Projects	630,016	265,612
Pension Bond Debt	-	16,912

Indiana Code 6-1.1-18-4 states in part: ". . . the proper officers of a political subdivision shall appropriate funds in such a manner that the expenditures for a year do not exceed its budget for that year as finally determined under this article."

As with the long standing lax regard toward District credit cards, it will be extremely interesting to read the SBOA's report for the audit now underway of the District's books from mid-2007 through mid-2009, to see if this pattern of spending outside what has been appropriated to the various funds has continued or has ceased. Let us hope it is the latter.