VIDALIA — The Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office nearly broke even on its $12.7 million budget last fiscal year, an audit released Monday by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor indicates.

The sheriff’s office overspent its budget by approximately $12,800 for the fiscal year ending June 30.

“That’s breaking even for all practical purposes,” said auditor Myles Hopkins of Silas Simmons of Natchez, the firm contracted to perform the audit. “Out of a ($12.7 million) budget, that’s about as close as you can get.”

The sheriff’s office received a clean audit from Silas Simmons, which also noted that the sheriff’s office filed its previous audit late, but had taken corrective actions and filed the current audit on time.

The audit also reflects the application of a new accounting rule passed down by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) regarding accounting and financial reporting by state and local governments for pensions.

For the CPSO, the new rule — GASB 68 — required the audit to reflect CPSO’s portion of the state sheriffs pension fund. The audit shows future retirement expenses for CPSO exceed its assets by approximately $4.3 million.

“But it’s not due right now,” Hopkins said. “That would be if everyone retired right now. The debt has always been there. All of these governments just have to report it now.”

Pension funds throughout the country are financially underwater, and the reason behind the new requirement is to create awareness about the underfunded pensions, Hopkins said.

“What it’s trying to do is make the citizens and the sheriffs aware that this is a problem, and they are going to have to fund these things better or they are going to have to cut back,” he said.

Pension funding is set by statute, Hopkins said, and is out of the control of local hands.

“There’s nothing the sheriff can do about it as far as adjusting his budget,” he said.

The audit indicates revenues also came out approximately $80,000 less than projected. CPSO Fiscal Officer Donna Jones said the office saw revenues were not coming in as expected and adjusted its budget accordingly.

“Toward the end of the (fiscal) year when we saw that we were going to break even, we went ahead and decided to purchase equipment and software we needed,” Jones said. “But we waited until we knew we were going to make it.”

The equipment, which was needed for the kitchen at Concordia Parish Correctional Facility, and software that replaced outdated software, Jones said, amounted to approximately $12,000.

“Out of (nearly) $13 million, it’s kind of a drop in the bucket,” she said. “We are really pleased with how it came out.”

Jones said she is even more pleased the CPSO has not been put into a position where it needed to dip into its $2.7 million reserves.

Jones attributed a decrease in revenue for CPSO to revenue at the prison being down, a result of the recent reduction in oilfield work.

Inmates through the prison’s work release program make supplies for oilfield work, such as barrels, Jones said, so when oilfield activity reduced, the demand for the supplies decreased.

Overall, Jones said she is pleased with how the year came out financially.

A couple of years ago the CPSO was facing a more than a $1 million deficit, but Jones said the office took steps to prevent that and continues to keep a tight grip on finances.

“We still try to keep expenses down, and we’re pretty proud of that,” she said.