A state audit finds millions of dollars at the Maine Endwell School district that could have been used to lower taxes.

The State Comptroller's office says Maine-Endwell underestimated its fund balance and cash reserves by 6.7 million dollars.

The audit found the district thought it had about 1.6 million dollars in the general fund balance, when it really had more than 5.3 million.

The district also had almost a million dollars in its unemployment insurance fund, which was enough to pay for 100 years of its average unemployment claims.

The district raised taxes to fund employee benefits instead of using the balance.

"There are times where there are huge spikes in different benefits that we have to play out. The one thing our board of education and we are adamant about is we do not want to have up and down spikes for our taxpayers in terms of what we charge them," said Maine Endwell School Superintendent Joseph Stoner.

The audit also says the district paid 37 thousand dollars in health insurance for two retirees who had died.

However, that money was paid back to the district.

The audit recommends using the fund balance to create necessary reserves, then use what's left to pay off debt and reduce district taxes..

Stoner say the mid-year cuts to education are the perfect example for why it spent years putting that money away.