Selma City Council approves balanced budget for incoming mayor and council

The departing Selma City Council approved a balanced budget for the mayor and city council that will take over on Nov. 3.

At a special called meeting on Sept. 29, the Selma City Council approved a budget that calls for $21.7 million in expenses and projected revenue of $20.9 million. The city will have to use reserves to cover the difference between revenue and expenses.

The original plan was to carry over the current budget into the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, but the current budget is not balanced because it’s over on expenses and under on revenue.

The city council developed a new budget during two days of meetings last week. The committee balanced the 2026 budget by removing several one-time expenses from the current budget. Next year’s budget won’t have to include $400,000 spent on the city-wide camera system or a litter control program that was in the current budget but wasn’t done because it was opposed by Selma Mayor James Perkins Jr.

The new mayor and council can amend the budget once they take office.

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“This is a Herculean document,” Council President Billy Young said of the budget. “It’s not perfect. Some areas will have to be looked at quickly. But it is on the record that we have approved a balanced budget.”

The city council approved a tax on vape products. The tax of 20 cents per cartridge will take effect on Jan. 1.

A motion to hire accounting firm BMSS to serve as the city’s interim treasurer faltered at the Sept. 29 meeting. The decision will be considered at the council’s next regular meeting on Oct. 14.

Some council members want to name the outside firm as the city’s interim treasurer so they will have access to city’s books. The council hired BMSS to help Interim Treasurer Janice Stewart, but BMSS has reported that Perkins’ office has not given them access to the city’s financial information.

Stewart has told the council that she is overwhelmed because she is doing three jobs, but some council members have balked at replacing her with an outside firm. Councilman Michael Johnson said Sept. 29 that he was concerned that the council doesn’t know how much BMSS’s services will cost.