The Canon McMillan School District is challenging a State Auditor General’s audit and claims that districts are playing a “shell game” and using state law “to their advantage so they could always raise property taxes”. Auditor General Timothy DeFoor, on Wednesday,released an audit of 12 school districts from across the Commonwealth. It evaluated whether each district appropriately used the referendum exception method to raise local taxes as well as whether they ensured that General Fund balances were properly designated. DeFoor says “some startling trends began to appear to our auditors, like moving money around to make sure the district would always meet the threshold to raise taxes” DeFoor also says “they applied for a referendum exception as a regular budgeting tool, rather than an extreme measure as the law intends”. He has outlined recommendations to the General Assembly to help school districts fund education and protect taxpayers. WJPA News reached out to the Canon McMillan School District for comment and we received a two-and-a-half page response. In it, the district first claims that it should not have even been included in such an audit. They say “on one occasion, during the 2019-20 school year, the District applied to the Department for approval of the budgeting exceptions”. However, the district says they “did not accept or utilize the approved tax increases over the Act 1 index.” The district says they were “fully in compliance with all laws and regulations” and that the report contains “inaccurate and misleading information and statements regarding the district’s budgeting process”.