The city of Vicksburg is in a good position financially, according to an audit report received by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen Wednesday.

“The most significant thing about the audit is the city is financially sound,” said accountant Booker T. Camper Jr., who performed the annual audit of the city’s finances.

According to the report, the city’s assets totaled $237 million with liabilities of $119 million for a net worth of $117 million, “Which is pretty good,” Camper said.

The city’s general fund ended fiscal year 2020 with total revenue of about $30 million with operating expenses of $44 million resulting in a loss of roughly $4 million, according to the report.

Camper said after the meeting the loss was because of a $5 million entry for pensions; an administrative action for reporting purposes required under accounting standards.

“It’s an income statement,” he said. “What it did, it threw it (the budget) open $4 million in the red, but it was not a cash outlay (no money was spent) so we really had a net income of $1 million.”

“This audit report proves that not just the last fiscal year but the last eight fiscal years we have governed ourselves accordingly,” Mayor George Flaggs said. “We have been recognized by (bond rating service) Moody’s, which we didn’t have when I first got here, that we are doing everything we need to do.

“This says that this city can compete with anybody,” he said.