Reduced debt by $1.86M in 2017, completed S3N from reserves

The City of Andalusia’s 2017 audit showed the city is on “fine, solid, financial footing,” its auditor said.

Ken Odom of Rabren, Odom, Pierce and Hayes, PC presented the audit, which was adopted, Tuesday night.

“This doesn’t happen overnight,” Odom said. “A lot of this started several years ago.”

During that fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30, 2017, Odom said the city:

• Reduced its debt by $1.86 million from the prior fiscal year.
• Generated $18.9 million, spent $16.15 million, with an excess of revenues over expenses of $1.77 million.
• The city’s government funds balance at year end was $98.9 million $857,257 from the prior year. The difference represents the expense of the city’s match portion for the South Three Notch Street project. Mayor Earl Johnson pointed out that this project was completed without financing.

“Unlike most capital projects of this magnitude, due to strategic planning, none of the South Three Notch Street project was completed with additional long term debt,” he said.

In his letter to be included with the audit, the mayor stated, “In 2013, the city council and I developed a plan to build a capital reserve and increase our commitment to education largely financed through a sales tax increase. Since that time, we have dramatically increased our capital reserves and transferred in excess of $5.5 million in new revenue to Andalusia City Schools for new academic programs and capital projects.”