The Ankeny Community School District defined SSA (State Supplemental Aid) as the cost of living adjustment for school budgets. “To keep pace with rising costs, SSA needs to at least match inflation. If it does not, we would need to thoughtfully consider our budgeting strategy and staffing plans,” according to their website. Each cycle public debate is whether the amount approved by Republicans meets Democratic expectations to support public schools. Mostly it does not and Iowa Republicans have been in the majority longer than kindergarten students have been alive. They have the votes to pass what they will.

Tuesday’s front page headline that Iowa City Schools were years behind in audits is not making the case for more money in SSA. While next year’s level of two percent was approved in February, the financial issues cast a cloud over the school board’s independence. Republicans with a mind to consolidate government operations at the state level might be salivating at the prospects manifest in this local failure.

When I was covering the Iowa City School Board for the North Liberty Leader newspaper, I had a personal relationship with their Chief Financial Officer, which I needed to write my stories. While the superintendent tried to maneuver him away from me, I usually got answers I needed. I spent decades in management at a large company and the district’s CFO was as good as any financial officer I have known. What happened, besides changing CFOs?

“The district’s most recent audit — completed two years after the end of that fiscal year — details corrective action needed, including previous district leadership not appearing to properly reconcile the district’s balance sheet,” according to the Cedar Rapids Gazette. “What reconciliations were available contained unknown variances.”

During a board meeting this week (March 5), board member Jayne Finch asked interim Chief Financial Officer Kim Michael-Lee to describe the status of the district’s books “in a few words.” Michael-Lee responded: “Unbalanced, unreconciled,” according to KGAN, the local CBS affiliate.

It’s not a good look found in a financial records audit by an outside firm just before a vote on budget cuts.

At a March 10, meeting, the school board voted to table a proposed $7.5 million budget cut until district finances could be presented in reasonable order. Because of inaccurately applying property tax revenue to appropriate budget line items, board members were unclear as to whether they could meet financial demands, including bond obligations, by June 1.

This is all a long lead in to: WTF Iowa City? Applying revenue to accounts is boilerplate accounting. If you can’t balance the checkbook, you keep working until you figure it out. Basic incompetence calls attention to the problems and when they see a problem like this, elected officials may use the only plan in their playbook: consolidate authority for school board finances at the state level.

Here’s hoping the Iowa City Community School District straightens things out in a timely manner. Let’s not give Des Moines any reasons to make Iowa more of a nanny state.