The fund planned to retain more than it used
Kern County’s Real Estate Fraud fund opened the adopted schedule with $1,032,849 available and added $703,734 in new financing, producing $1,736,583 in total resources.
The schedule assigned $752,240 to financing uses and carried $984,343 forward. The ending balance equals 56.7% of available resources, while planned uses equal 43.3%.
| Line | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Opening available balance | $1,032,849 | 59.5% of resources |
| New financing | $703,734 | 40.5% |
| Financing uses | $752,240 | 43.3% |
| Ending balance | $984,343 | 56.7% |
Current financing nearly matched the year’s uses
New financing equaled 93.6% of planned uses. That helps explain why the fund could budget enforcement activity while preserving most of its opening balance, although the summary does not identify the fee, fine or transfer sources behind the $703,734.
Schedule 3 also reports a $2,044,887 gross balance, with $1,012,038 committed or assigned. After that adjustment, the available opening balance was $1,032,849.
The budget has no performance denominator
The adopted fund schedules do not say how many referrals were reviewed, charges filed, victims assisted, dollars recovered or investigations closed. A high ending balance therefore cannot by itself be labeled under-enforcement, and a planned use cannot be counted as a successful case.
Those omissions create a measurable accountability question: what enforcement output and victim benefit does $752,240 in budgeted use purchase, and why is a $984,343 balance the appropriate carry-forward?
Records method
The newsroom matched the special-revenue fund across Schedules 2 and 3 and calculated the financing-to-use and ending-balance shares. No allegation against a person or property was examined.
The contribution is an allocation finding, not a claim of wrongdoing. Department ledgers, case statistics and governing spending rules are necessary to evaluate the fund’s effectiveness.