AUDITOR: City financial woes started years ago
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Cliff Williams / The Outlook Carr Riggs & Ingram auditor Jason Harte explains to the Alexander City City Council when expenses went above revenues.

As the economy started to struggle in Alexander City nearly 20 years ago, the City of Alexander City began to spend more than it received. 

Carr, Riggs & Ingram auditor Jason Harte believes many of the city’s financial issues likely started in 2006 and before. As the years went by, administrations changed and financial reports were late or missing. Harte said for the last 16 years city expenditures have exceeded revenues in a report he gave the Alexander City City Council during a work session Thursday. Harte went back through the city’s financial reports going back to 2000 in an attempt to figure out where things went awry — to figure out when expenditures crossed above revenues.

Cliff Williams is a staff writer for Tallapoosa Publishers.