I very much appreciate that the Marathon County Public Library publishes detailed timely monthly financial statements.
Unfortunately, in 2023, the Library didn’t include $89,639.36 of personnel expenses in the May 2023 monthly financial statement and $88,048.11 in the October monthly financial statement, which were published in the monthly library reports (see references below). These 2 missed entries, totaling $177,687.47, represent an understatement of 2023 personnel expenses of approximately 7%.
I am not suggesting that the Library was trying to hide these costs or deliberately doing anything improper. It seems apparent that they just didn’t have time to get the final payroll included in the next monthly packet for the 2 months that had 3 payrolls. The additional payrolls were included in the running totals. Still, the published financial statements were incorrect and I relied on them for preparing year end estimates.
The financial statements understated the 2023 personnel expenses by $157,546.23, which led to me underestimating the overall 2023 library expenses. Looking back on my thought process as I prepared the potential amendment to reduce the Library Tax Levy by $165,000 relative to the Library’s budget request, I think it is fair to say that I would not have considered proposing the $165,000 reduction if I had been aware of the additional $157,546.23 in 2023 personnel expenses.
Going forward, it would be helpful, more accurate, and more transparent if a way could be found to include the 3rd payroll in one of the monthly financial statements.
The following is the email exchange regarding the missing payroll entries.
