VIDALIA, La. – A $2,600 criminal court fund deficit and the absence of Fruit of the Loom revenues were highlights of a 1999 financial audit approved Monday by the Concordia Parish Police Jury.

&uot;It’s a good report other than the fact that you don’t have any money,&uot; said accountant Jerri Sue Tosspon.

Although funds have operated with deficits in the past, Tosspon said this is the first time she can remember that a fund has had a deficit in its year-end balance.

&uot;But a lot of these are things we’re mandated to do … and we need to get attention focused on them,&uot;&160;said Juror Gene Allen. State law requires the jury pay expenses related to criminal court from the fund. Its revenue comes from forfeitures and fines. Allen also suggested the jury ask the parish’s judges to consider reducing bonds in some criminal cases involving local people to reduce the amount the jury has to pay out of the fund to keep them in jail — sometimes for several months, he said.

The jury voted in January to transfer money from the general fund to cover the criminal court fund’s deficit.

Tosspon also did not include $564,000 in revenue the jury was supposed to get from Fruit of the Loom, which went bankrupt in December. Company officials have said they are not sure when or if they will pay those taxes.

On the positive side, Tosspon said the jury has no long-term debt. She added that because of slight increase in its revenues, the jury now has to conduct an audit every year instead of every other year.