McHenry County receives ‘Triple Crown’ for winning three financial reporting awards

McHenry County earned an inaugural honor this year from a national organization of finance professionals, which recognized how the county presents its annual financial reports.

The Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada bestowed a Triple Crown medallion on the county for winning all three annual awards granted by the association in one year, according to a news release. This is the first year that the association handed out this distinction, and McHenry County is one of 292 governments nationwide to receive it.

The three recognitions McHenry County received – the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for its annual comprehensive financial Report, the Popular Annual Financial Reporting Award, and the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award – do not assess the health of government institutions but instead the transparency, approach and completeness of the financial documents they produce.

“McHenry County prides itself on being transparent, especially regarding taxpayer money, and once again, McHenry County government takes its place among the nation’s best as an example to follow,” County Board Chairman Mike Buehler, R-Crystal Lake, said in a news release.

The annual comprehensive financial report lists a government’s audited year-end fiscal activities in great detail, while its popular annual financial report is smaller and designed to be understandable by the general public. The budget award is given to governments whose actual budget documents meet or exceed all criteria set forth by GFOA.

While this year is the first that the association awarded the Triple Crown, McHenry County has won all three of the qualifying awards on at least six occasions in recent years.

McHenry County also maintains a financial dashboard where people review revenues and expenses, both overall and year-to-date, since fiscal 2017. It can be found on the county website at www.mchenrycountyil.gov/financialdashboard.

Last month, Moody’s Investors Service assigned McHenry County government its top Aaa bond rating for the 11th straight year; McHenry County is one of only three county governments in Illinois, and only 107 nationwide, to have the top rating.