During Monday night’s Selma City Council meeting, Bob Sanders began a short presentation with the following words: “It’s not often that I get to give good news.”

The good news Sanders gave Monday should encourage the people of Selma about the way out city is being run, and what lies ahead during a tough economic time.

Sanders reported to council that the city has made budget two-thirds of the way through the year. In fact, the city of Selma has spent less than it planned to spend, and has collected more revenue than it expected to collect.

All told, the city has achieved something that at one time looked like a gloomy proposition. On Dec. 13, 2001, the Times-Journal reported that our city government had spent $721,167 over what it had received in November 2001.

Mayor James Perkins explained that all revenue had not been collected, but he also admitted that spending still exceeded revenue.

What a change our city government has made, and there are reasons for the reversal in economic news.

First, the city has worked extra hard to collect unpaid fees. A stepped up garbage fee collection has helped the city tremendously. At the same time, the city has collected business license and building permit fees at a more strict level.

All in all, the city has achieved something that many citizens in Selma doubted they could achieve.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that this isn’t the end of the fiscal year, which comes Sept. 30, 2002.

Our mayor, along with every department head in the city, should be applauded for the financial stewardship they have shown in the past few months. They also should know that we still have four more months to go in this fiscal year.

The city of Selma should not spend more, nor should it stop its collections efforts just because numbers look good through May 2002. Rather, let’s finish out the year strong. Let’s continue to collect, and let’s continue to pinch pennies where we can.