by 
San Manuel Miner
The Town of Mammoth’s new leadership has wasted little time since taking control in November to discover just how bad the town’s finances are. The town has now been audited through the fiscal year of 2012 and it is indeed a grim picture.
At the last Mammoth Town Council meeting, a presentation was given by Scott Graf of the Colby and Powell accounting firm. Graf spoke on the audit of the town’s finances for the fiscal year 2011-2012. The audit showed that the amount of HURF funds that the Town of Mammoth must pay back is now $909,278. It appears that the Town of Mammoth has been spending more than it takes in and was using the HURF funds to make up their budget shortfalls.
The audit showed that Mammoth has been operating at a loss with water, sewer, sanitation and cemetery operations for years. The General Fund suffered a loss of $170,424 in 2011 and $187,388 in 2012. The town has been borrowing from the HURF funds since 2005.
There are two more audits to be done for fiscal years 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. It is not known yet if during these periods the Town of Mammoth began paying back the HURF funds or continued to borrow more or if the town continued to spend more than the revenue they were bringing in. The new mayor and council will have some hard budget decisions to make in the near future.
John Hernandez lives in Oracle. He is retired and enjoys writing and traveling. He is active in the Oracle Historical Society. He covers numerous public events, researches historical features and writes business/artist profiles.
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