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If you hadn’t heard, and you should have because we’ve been talking about it for a couple years now, there is a pretty dire situation happening on the municipal level as municipalities across the country struggle to file audits on time. Or, in some cases, at all.
In Arkansas, dozens of municipalities currently cut off from state funding are feeling the consequences of late or absent audits:
Dozens of Arkansas municipalities will continue to go without certain monthly state funds because they haven’t submitted required audits of their water and sewer systems.
The Legislative Joint Auditing Committee on Friday rejected a proposal to reverse a July vote that directed the state treasurer to withhold “turnback funds” from 43 cities and towns with outstanding 2022 water and sewer audits. The vote was close: seven lawmakers supported the motion, eight opposed, and five were present but did not vote. Several committee members were absent.
The committee had previously allowed a grace period for 40 municipalities that had not submitted reports for fiscal years 2022 through 2024. Only five of the flagged cities have since filed their audits or provided engagement letters promising submission by Dec. 31.
“If they have a water and sewer department and you don’t pay your water bill, what happens? You get your water cut off,” said Rep. Robin Lundstrum, R-Elm Springs. “At some point, they’ve got to be able to do an audit.”
Related: According to a recent story in Bloomberg, US banks are holding the smallest share of debt sold by states and localities since the financial crisis.
A story out of Pennsylvania gives us an example of the sorts of factors delaying local audits:
The finish line is coming closer for Lansdale Borough to finish two long-delayed financial audits.
“We expect to get an unqualified opinion in the next two weeks,” said Finance Director Christopher Shannon.
“Right after that, they’re going to do 2024, and ’24 should be an easy follow because all of the issues were in ’23,” he said.
In September borough officials gave an update on delays to the two most recent financial audits for the town, the reasons they remain incomplete, and a timeline for resolving both while budget talks are ongoing this fall for 2026. Those delays were caused by several factors, Shannon told the town’s administration and finance committee on Oct. 1, including the departures of key finance department personnel, combined with a change in software used by that department, and changes to where certain bank accounts were held.
“It created some level of havoc, the implementation didn’t go well in terms of moving from the old software to the new software, and that kind of morphed into a much larger problem,” Shannon said.
In Korea, there aren’t a lot of people at Big 4 firms making more than 500 million won ($350,615 USD), reports ChosunBiz:
The accounting industry, struggling with slowing growth, is reorganizing the expanded structures it had built and tightening executives’ belts. Except for Samil [PwC], the number of executives receiving more than 500 million won in compensation in fiscal 2025 declined at Samjeong, EY Hanyoung, and Anjin accounting firms.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service electronic disclosure system and the accounting industry, Anjin [Deloitte] accounting firm had six executives with compensation of 500 million won or more in fiscal 2025 (June 2024–May 2025). That was down from 14 in the same period last year to 11, a drop of three, and the number decreased again this year, falling below half in two years.
EY Hanyoung also saw a decline from 24 to 17 over the same period, and to 13 in this fiscal year (July 2024–June 2025).
A couple of Oklahomans allege a 7% tax on weed is illegal and they’re in court to fight it:
Adrian Keith Johnson and Tracy Neeley filed a lawsuit in Oklahoma County against the Oklahoma Tax Commission and state treasurer. The lawsuit claims that the 7% excise tax on all medical marijuana sales is unconstitutional based on Oklahoma’s strict rules about creating new taxes.
They also suggest a fix — the creation of a refund program that will return “more than one billion dollars” to patients who paid it. The lawsuit claims that, with compounded interest, Oklahoma’s Tax Commission has collected more than $1 billion from patients buying medical marijuana.
You’re missing the 2025 National Business Aviation Association Tax, Regulatory & Risk Management Conference, the NBAA has some highlights:
From the effects of the Trump administration’s massive international tariffs to the challenges of completing aircraft transactions against the backdrop of the ongoing federal government shutdown, it’s been “a pretty crazy year, unlike any we’ve seen before,” in the words of NBAA Tax Committee member David Shannon.
Shannon moderated the Oct. 12 opening session of the 2025 NBAA Tax, Regulatory & Risk Management Conference, featuring insights from aviation finance and transactions professionals Joanne Barbera, Angel Houck and Jeff Agur on how these and other factors weigh against what continues to be a strong market for business aircraft overall. More than 300 people are attending the conference.
Notably, some of the key concerns in focus at last year’s conference, including ramped up IRS audits of business aircraft operators, have since subsided as concerns about tariffs dominated the first half of 2025.
“The risk changed day to day, depending on what side of the bed the administration got up on,” said Agur, CEO of VanAllen Group. “It was very frustrating.”
The Chicago Teachers Union has been paying $80k a year for audits but hasn’t published any such audit in five years, reports Illinois Policy:
The Chicago Teachers Union’s annual reporting with the U.S. Department of Labor shows it has been paying accountants to conduct its audits.
But it hasn’t released those “annual” audits in over five years.
CTU is required by its own internal rules to provide an audit of its finances every year. But it hasn’t done so since Sept. 9, 2020.
The union reported to the U.S. Department of Labor that it did have an outside auditor conduct an audit in 2025 and that the cost totaled nearly $80,000.
The situation is overflowing with drama. Exhibit A: A Facebook post in a private group led to CTU President Stacy Davis Gates lashing out thusly:
NEW: Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates accuses a fellow union member of racist dog-whistling.
— Austin Berg (@Austin__Berg) September 24, 2023
The member previously sought election as the union’s financial secretary. And pointed out in a private group post that the union has refused to produce an audit for… pic.twitter.com/Igyi9Dttmz
That’s what I’ve got for this news brief. Now go out there and have a good week, you.
