THE SELMA TIMES-JOURNAL

Mayor James Perkins’ message is clear: Selma’s infrastructure needs repairing and an $11.7 million bond issue will go a long way toward seeing some work completed.

Perkins talked with members of the Selma Rotary Club on Monday during the club’s noon meeting at the St. James Hotel.

He answered some questions, but preferred to defer many of the money questions to Robert Thomas of Sterne-Agee Financial Services. Thomas couldn’t attend the meeting, but Perkins asked to come back to clarify some of those issues.

Perkins said the bond issue will total $12 million because of some other costs plugged in.

“We built in a cushion for associated fees,” the mayor said.

The maximum annual interest rate on the bond is 7 percent.

However, Perkins said he expects the interest rate on the bond issue to range from about 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent.

Nobody will know until the issue is approved by voters and the city begins to put them on the market.

No new tax levy will be placed on the people to pay off these bonds, Perkins said.

Currently, a fund exists to pay off an old bond issue passed during the previous administration, Perkins said. That fund represents 7 mills of property tax paid by landowners in Selma.

None of the money in that fund, the Bond Debt Service Fund, can be used for anything other than to pay bond debt.

Right now, said Perkins, the fund has $3 million and takes on about $600,000 to $700,000 a year.

To hear the mayor’s speech, go to www.selmatimesjournal.com and watch the video.