PARIS — The town’s general fund is in good shape, but town officials only had a vague idea how good before a recent audit, according to one selectman.

On Monday night, when selectmen got the annual audit report on the 2009-10 fiscal year, Selectman Ted Kurtz spent nearly an hour questioning auditor Gregory Chabot. Before Chabot’s presentation, Kurtz, an attorney, said the town had been “flying blind,” without a good idea of the general fund balance.

“We’ve got all these special revenue funds and we’ve got these other reserve funds and we’ve got all these terms going around and it makes it, in my mind anyway, kind of a pea in a shell game,” Kurtz said Thursday.

“I don’t mean to suggest that we’re unaware that our bank account at the bank is about to be overdrawn,” Kurtz said.

While the audit report was enlightening, Kurtz said, it came after months of darkness. At Monday’s meeting, he said he’d like to see a plain-language financial report residents could understand. The itemized town budget is available at the Town Office and on the town’s website, but the town’s revenues are more complicated.

In his report to selectmen, auditor Chabot divided the town’s general fund revenue into several categories, with more than 98 percent coming from property taxes, excise taxes and intergovernmental funds. However, much of that money, such as road construction funding, is designated as soon as it comes in and isn’t available in case of emergency.

Kurtz said that will change next year when the town must conform its bookkeeping to comply with a new standard from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, a private-sector organization that sets governmental budgeting standards. The new standard will simplify labeling of revenues and standardize town bookkeeping so Paris’ finances can easily be compared with those of Norway and other Maine towns.

It’ll mean a lot of reorganizing not only for the town, but for Runyon Kersteen Ouellette, the accounting firm that audits the town. Kurtz said he’ll be contacting Chabot early next year for an update. “I’m going to give him about two months to work on that, then I want to know. I’m not going to wait until next November and the next audit report to have him telling us what we’ve been doing the past six months.”

Selectman Raymond Glover said there’s no need for selectmen to know every detail of the town’s funding. Town Finance Clerk Sharon Gendreau and Town Manager Phil Tarr keep track of the general fund, he said.

According to Chabot’s report, cash and investments were up more than $300,000 over the year before. Accounts payable were up only $63,000.

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