Locating Municipality & State Finances (Debt, Revenue, etc.)
I'm wondering if anyone is familiar with how to locate the financial condition (debt, revenue, etc.) of municipalities, counties and states.
I live in New England, and currently live in the same town I grew up in. Now that I'm a homeowner and I notice my property tax bill going up, I'd
like to see how the town is doing financially. As a tax payer and citizen, I find it hard to believe this information would not be publicly
available.
Especially considering all of the bankrupt municipalities, cities, etc. across the us. See this map for reference:
www.governing.com...
I've tried looking at reports you can run for the Town Treasurer, but the data it generated was not a balance sheet, cash flow statement, or anything
like that. It showed bits and pieces of tax income and no expenses.
The point of all this is (in addition to seeing how the town is doing with spending/debt) is to also see if I can identify any areas of waste (or
corruption...).
The town wants to continue increasing my property taxes. At the same time, we have all of these new box office stores and huge residential development
projects going on - whenever these projects come into public light, locals typically are not too happy because our town has already experienced a lot
of development over the past 15 years. The town officials like to talk about "how much tax revenue this will bring it".
Well how come my taxes keep going up? I wish to actually look into what's going on, what do the numbers show...
I know JAGstorm talks about how the Illinois tax situation is becoming unsustainable.
Does anybody else have experience with this? Suggestions? Should I just reach out to the Town Treasurer, or will I just make enemies in doing so?
Thanks in advance for any advice