If it holds true, Selma’s first audit draft for 2004 means citizens won’t be paying more taxes anytime soon, Mayor James Perkins said.

“If the city is operating within its budget constraints,” he said, “that means we don’t have to raise the taxes.”

While the latest audit presented at last night’s City Council meeting showed a decrease in red ink, Perkins said the city still needs to improve.

According to the city’s audit draft, barely three months after the end of the fiscal year, the city showed cut its deficit spending considerably from 2003 to 2004.

Even better, according to Billy Daniels, CPA with WilsonPriceBarrancoBlankenship&BillingsleyCPA, the city is showing an overall reduction of debt and an increase in assets.

“Total assets were at $34,354,000,” Daniels said. Last year, he said, the city’s assets totaled $34,167,000.

“Liabilities last year were $13,010,000,” he said. “This year, liabilities total $12,499,000.”

“That shows a positive increase,” Daniels said, “in that your assets were up and your liabilities went down.”

The information presented to the council last night was only a draft report. The final figures won’t be ready for approval until March at the earliest.

Still, Perkins, and other council members were happy.

“It means we’re getting better,” Perkins said. “The cost reductions we have been doing have been working.”

“It is significantly better than the previous year based upon this draft,” Councilman Reid Cain said after the meeting. “That is good. It’s a lot better than I realized.”

The city, Perkins said, has been reducing costs and gaining capital in the last two years, which accounts for the drop.

“We did a lot of acquisitions last year and (paid) some long term debt,” he said.

New auditing standards, introduced last year, require a city to compare its liability with it’s assets, including property owned.

While Perkins acknowledged that property acquisitions have helped the audit, he said the city is working hard to lower costs.

“Today I had to talk about staff reductions,” he said. “We’re doing a better job of setting up a cost containment.”

Auditors also reported, in their initial draft, that the city was following proper accounting procedures.

Perkins seemed pleased with the audit.

“I think the city financially is moving in the right direction,” he said. “But we’ve still got a ways to go.”