Wanting to Know What We Don’t Know
I’m voting NO on this upcoming proposition 2.5 override and I’’ writing to explain why. We’re being told, and some proponents of the override are advocating, that costs have gone up and this override is needed to keep up with them. I’m not buying that oversimplification of an explanation. We’re supposed to be preparing five-year projections for income and expenses as part of our annual budgeting process every year. If that were being done accurately and competently, it would have shown a deficit in the making and it could have been addressed years ago.
It should be obvious to everyone that our town’s finances have been mismanaged. My biggest concern is that the town, and thereby all taxpayers, don’t fully know how badly and for how long that mismanagement has been going on. Until we know that, adding an override is just throwing money (mine and yours) at a problem that hasn’t really been identified or addressed. I read that we have been using free cash to supplement our annual budget for years. That’s a practice that a town or company uses when it’s in financial trouble. As far as we knew, we weren’t in trouble, so why were we doing it?
That needs to be investigated. What else has been happening to screw up the town’s finances that we (or even town officials) don’t know about?
The town should contract with a third party municipal auditor to perform a thorough forensic financial audit of the town’s receipts, expenditures and financial practices. Only that would tell us exactly how this happened, who is responsible, what we should do to correct it and what controls need to be put in place to prevent this from happening in the future. If that audit concludes that an override is the best way to get us back in shape financially, then I’ll support it. Without that audit, and without the town demonstrating that the proper controls have been put in place to prevent this in the future, I’m not giving the town any extra money to mismanage.
Phil Washko, Fairhaven
•••
Click here to download the 5/25/23 issue: 05-25-23 HuttlestonMP
Support local journalism, donate to the Neighb News with PayPal
