McHenry County Goes Back-To-Back With Financial Reporting Award

CRYSTAL LAKE, IL —McHenry County has once again been recognized on a large stage for its financial planning after earning a Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada honor for its Fiscal Year 2020 Popular Annual Financial Report.

The GFOA handed out its Award for Outstanding Achievement to McHenry County for its report, which is designed to be succinct and easily understood by the public, county officials said in a news release on Tuesday.

The honor marks the 12th straight year that McHenry County’s report has won the award. In April, the county won its ninth straight GFOA award for its Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, which lays out a government’s audited year-end fiscal activities in detail, officials said.

In 2021, McHenry County was awarded the GFOA’s inaugural Triple Crown medallion for winning all three annual awards bestowed by the association in a single year for its 2019 budget, and the comprehensive and popular reports.

McHenry County was one of only 292 governments in the US and Canada to win the Triple Crown and is one award away from a repeat.

“These awards are a testament to our fiscal prudence at a time when household and business budgets are being squeezed by inflation and shortages,” McHenry County Board Chairman Mike Buehler (R-Crystal Lake) said in the news release. “It’s an honor when our dedication to transparency and accountability is recognized, yet again, by our respected peers.”

The GFOA, which is headquartered in Chicago, is a nonprofit professional organization that advances excellence in government finance by providing best practices, professional development, resources, and practical research for more than 21,000 members, and the communities they serve.

McHenry County participated in a fellowship program, run by GFOA and the national government professional group Engaging Local Government Leaders, that connects local governments wanting to develop a new popular financial report with college students, county Chief Financial Officer Kevin Bueso said.

The county’s award-winning report for 2020 was developed by Karin Dietz, the former Assistance Finance Director – Accounting, and Meagan Kascsak, an MPA student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“This is a great representation of the McHenry County Finance Department’s commitment to achieving the highest levels of transparency and financial reporting,” Bueso said in the release.”

McHenry County puts its full budget on display through Questica OpenBook, a powerful tool that allows viewers to easily examine it in as great a detail as they wish. The budget for the current 2022 fiscal year can be found here, and budget reports dating back to 2009 can be found here.