At the May 5, 2026 Warren County Board of Supervisors meeting, I spoke during public comment about the airport box hangar project, the use of fund balance, and my concern that the county is moving forward with a $1.5 million commitment while our audits remain incomplete.

I want to be clear about something up front: I am not against the airport.

The Front Royal-Warren County Airport has value. It supports emergency services, medical transport, aviation activity, tourism, business activity, and future development. The Airport Commission made a fair case for that. My concern is not whether the airport matters.

My concern is timing, priorities, and financial clarity.

We just went through a painful budget season where residents were asked to absorb a ten-cent increase in the real estate tax rate (approved at nine cents). At the public hearing, the county handed out a budget pamphlet explaining that each penny of real estate tax equals about $750,000 in revenue.

That number stuck with me.

If one penny equals $750,000, then $1.5 million equals two pennies on the real estate tax rate.

So regardless of whether the airport hangar money comes from the General Fund, fund balance, reserves, carryover, or another accounting bucket, $1.5 million is still a significant amount of public money. In the context of the tax increase residents just absorbed, it represents the equivalent of two cents on the tax rate.

That does not automatically mean it should have been used to reduce taxes. I understand that if the county finances the hangars through a loan, the fund balance would not necessarily be used as a direct $1.5 million offset. It might instead be used for payments, taxes, closing costs, or temporary cash flow. That makes the comparison imperfect.

But the comparison still matters politically and publicly.

Residents were told the county needed a major tax increase to fund essential services. The proposed budget was presented as lean, needs-based, and focused on keeping county operations functioning. The airport T-hangar request was not included in that proposed budget. Then, shortly afterward, the county moved forward with an RFP for additional airport box hangars using fund balance.

That creates a public trust problem.

During my comment, I referred to the money as coming from the General Fund. Supervisor Tony Carter clarified afterward that the money was not coming from the General Fund “per se,” but from fund balance. I appreciate the clarification.

I will also admit that I was not fully aware of the distinction between General Fund and fund balance when I spoke. I am often learning this terminology as I go. Local government finance has its own vocabulary, and sometimes residents only learn the meaning of these terms after asking questions in public.

But that clarification does not erase the concern.

Fund balance is not magic money. It is not meaningless simply because it is not part of the annual operating budget. It still represents public financial capacity. It still has opportunity costs. It still competes with other needs. And in Warren County’s case, the full picture remains clouded by incomplete audits.

That is the part I keep coming back to.

The FY24 and FY25 audits are still not complete. Audit completion dates keep getting pushed back. We have heard about unresolved checks. We have heard numbers that raise questions about what is truly available and what still needs to be reconciled. And yet we are making decisions involving large amounts of fund balance before the public has a clean, current financial picture.

That worries me.

The county has already identified nearly $11 million in county and school roof needs. There have been discussions about failing school chillers. We still have audit-related costs. We have unresolved financial uncertainty. We also likely face the future cost of recruiting and hiring a permanent county administrator, since our current administrator is serving in an interim role after coming out of retirement.

Against that backdrop, using $1.5 million in fund balance for airport expansion feels premature.

Again, this is not emergency preservation. The airport is operational. Planes can land. Emergency services can use it. The hangar project is an expansion. It may be worthwhile. It may even pay for itself over time. But if it can pay for itself over time, then there should be a formal repayment path showing how the airport fund will replenish the source of the money being used now.

That was one of my main takeaways after speaking: the public needs more clarity.

If this money is coming from fund balance, which fund balance? Is it restricted, assigned, committed, or unassigned? Was it part of the same carryover discussion that was used to explain why some department requests were cut or deferred? Was it money that could have supported roof repairs, emergency infrastructure, or tax relief? Will the airport fund repay it? If so, on what schedule?

Those are fair questions.

They are especially fair because the county reportedly could not qualify for a VRA loan because the audits were not in place. Borrowing now could involve taxable financing and significant fees. One number discussed was around $120,000 in fees. At the same time, the airport grant situation creates its own deadline, with the possibility of losing about $180,000 if funds are not used.

That sounds urgent at first, but the math deserves more scrutiny.

If the county risks losing $180,000 but would pay $120,000 in extra financing costs now, the immediate difference is closer to $60,000. And if completing the audits allows the county to qualify for better financing and avoid those extra fees later, then waiting could potentially save money rather than cost money.

That is why I believe the incomplete audits should be treated as a warning sign, not a workaround.

When the county cannot borrow on favorable terms because the audits are incomplete, the answer should not automatically be, “Use fund balance instead.” The answer should be, “Finish the audits, determine the actual fund balance, then make the decision from a stronger position.”

At the meeting, Supervisor Carter also asked that staff provide a future update on the audit status. I appreciate that. It is exactly the kind of follow-up the public needs.

We need regular public updates on audit progress. We need updates on outstanding checks. We need to know what remains unresolved, what has been reconciled, what deadlines have changed, and whether the county’s available fund balance is becoming clearer or more uncertain.

The county cannot rebuild public trust by only saying, “The audits are coming soon,” as each expected date approaches.

Residents deserve a dashboard-level understanding of where things stand.

My public comment was not perfect. I used “General Fund” instead of “fund balance.” But the larger point remains: $1.5 million is a lot of money in a year when taxpayers were asked to shoulder a major increase.

Whether the money is called fund balance, reserves, carryover, or anything else, it should be handled with caution until the audits are complete and the county’s obligations are fully understood.

The reserve is not spare money.

It is protection against known and foreseeable risks.

And before Warren County treats airport expansion as the next priority, residents deserve to know that roofs, schools, audits, unresolved checks, emergency infrastructure, and financial stability are not being pushed behind it.

Transcript (auto-generated)

Lewis Moten Public Comment: I would like to speak about the airport box hanger project and the general fund balance. And I’m I don’t have anything against the airport, but from what I saw with the budget that was presented to us, we were told that we were doing the bare necessity of what each department needed and the tea hangers were actually removed from that proposed budget.

And now I saw that we are now fielding uh bids for an RFP to use our general fund for that for that budget. And I spoke against using the general fund against uh because we don’t know what’s actually stable.

We don’t have a clear baseline and that the the funds were already earmarked. We’ve got schools. We’ve got this building with a leaking roof where at least I you know it’s it’s still there. I’ve pointed out before. Um we’ve got uh I think it’s a HVAC unit on a school on a school as well. The we’ve already got like over $11 million I think that’s been earmarked and now we’re putting the airport in front of the schools.

I understand there’s like a $60,000 savings if we go through the budget now instead of waiting for audits to complete and then going after a loan without taxes. But I just feel like it’s it’s really wrong here.

And once those audits come through, which they keep getting pushed back, there might be something I – you know, you have the old finance chair or finance committee chair who’s saying that there’s something wrong constantly and she keeps talking about it online. You’ve got one of the finance committee members talking that they they both want a forensic audit. So, if we don’t know what’s going on, let’s let’s be ready for it in case something does come up.

And the other thing is I want to see more on the status. Why are we getting pushed back? Is there any progress at all? What’s happening with all these uh unresolved checks? I think there’s like 14 million or so, or 14,000 checks. I want to see what’s how are we how are we addressing this problem other than delaying and getting another company on it. Where’s the progress?

Thank you.

Supervisor Tony Carter (Board Reports): mentioned about the airport and I believe the money was not and it may just been misspoken but the money for the airport’s not coming from general fund per se. Is it not coming from fund balance? It’s coming from the fund balance. Yeah.

Interim County Administrator: And then the board has an opportunity to replace that borrow later in time.

Supervisor Tony Carter: Right. So it’s not coming from the general fund per se. I just want to clarify that. Um and again maybe at our next meeting we could have somebody give us the update unless – I’m not asking anybody on the spot right now but maybe give a further update on how the audit is proceeding.