Tag Archives: Columbia finances

More info on the efficiency study

I wrote a story in today’s newspaper about Columbia City Council’s decision to pay for an efficiency study and the conflict it is creating about what is the best way to go about fixing the city’s finances. Some of you have asked for more information on EquaTerra, the firm City Council selected to conduct the [...]
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Columbia's investment policy

Columbia City Council members are expected to adopt an investment policy tonight. This policy is another step forward for the city in repairing its finances. The city’s external auditor, Bud Addison, and a team of accountants from the Municipal Association of South Carolina recommended several things the city should do to correct its accounting. The [...]
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Columbia 2009 deficit approximately $9 million

Columbia is now six days into the new budget year, which means the I-have-been-set-free accounting department is busy closing the books for the 2009 budget year. Preliminary numbers do not look good. Bill Ellis, the city’s interim chief financial officer, said the city earned about $104 million in 2008-09. They spent about $113 million. I’ll [...]
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Columbia's '08 audit '98 percent' complete

NOTE: An earlier version of this post said the 2008-09 audit would be the first test for the city’s new accounting department. The 2009-10 audit will be the first test. While Columbia’s 2007-08 fiscal year ended nearly a year ago, city officials are still waiting on an audit to see how they did. Wednesday, Bud [...]
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City will continue to pick up Condo owners' trash

Condo owners can stop worrying — Columbia will continue to pick up your trash from Dumpsters. A few weeks ago, Council Members voted to stop picking up Dumpster trash in order to save about $800,000 a year. Dumpsters are mostly for businesses, restaurants and apartment complexes, and Council Members assured homeowners the city would continue [...]
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