The city of Selma is considering refinancing 2011 bonds totaling around $11 million to a lower interest rate.

Refinancing would be a smart move and the city should look to lock in lower rates as soon as possible.

The city is paying about 6 percent interest on the $11 million bond and could refinance today at less than 3 percent.

The process is not cheap. A municipal investment banker has offered to handle the process and sell the new bonds for a 2.7 percent fee, which is approximately $375,000.

Believe it or not, that’s actually less than what the city paid for the bonds back in 2011, when the city was charged a 3.2 percent fee or $390,000.

However, refinancing would still result in $2.5 million in savings over the next seven years. That’s real money that can be used to pay for the many needs we have in Selma.

We would much rather see that money kept in Selma rather than lining some fat cat’s pocket on Wall Street.

Still though, the savings will only be about $260,000 annually. That’s a sizable amount but not much in a city with an annual budget of about $17 million.It’s certainly not enough to pay for employee raises or to build a public safety building, an idea that Mayor George Evans has supported. The city council has promised public safety employees a raise by Oct. 1 and city employees a raise sometime in the next budget year.

That $260,000 is a start and makes a lot of financial sense.