Is your town robbing you? I want to know the same thing

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

a reply to: FamCore

My local government publish all contracts online, and even department accounts showing all expenses over £100 by council staff/officers.
I see lots of waste and raise it formally in council meetings for an official response. Our city hall is almost broke, but we the public can all see the inappropriate spending decisions so can challenge it and vote the negligent councillors out every 4 years 👍

I actually challenged a security contract to protect a historic building, it was £750,000 for 12 months but the real price should have been more like £200,000. It made the local newspaper and 3 councillors resigned...result 😁

a reply to: FamCore

start at the bottom - i realise its complicated and more work - but .................

instead of asking for " stuff " , start at square one - and establsh how the hown is actualy run - who actually does what , what public reports and documents are actually required etc

start point - does your town have a " town charter " - start reading that

the public library may or may not be a gold mine of local govt documentation

ditto - country court house

lastly - town newspaper -

all three are independant or quasi independant of the town hall

know as much as possible - befor asking the town officials

a reply to: DaisyRainbow
a reply to: ignorant_ape

These are some really helpful insights. Interesting enough, I tried to download the Annual Town Report and I get a "404: Page Not Found" error. I have already submitted a request to get this report and explained that the website is not working.

I don't want to go making any enemies, but I am definitely going to be looking into this during my free time. There is way too much waste, fraud, corruption and abuse all over (I'm not saying my town is doing any of this, other than the waste and abuse which are a given... but I'm going to do my homework).

DaisyRainbow, good on you for being involved in local government and making a positive impact.

Ignorant_ape, reviewing the town charter and "starting at the bottom" may be some of my first steps when I get out of work at the end of the day. Thank you both.

I looked up Ft. Walton Beach a couple years back....thres actually a section in the budget called fines/fees. So those speeding tickets aint for your safety as I thought! lol


a reply to: FamCore

a reply to: FamCore

I love council public meetings, you have to submit your question a week before then you get 5 minutes speaking. If the question is answered you get the chance of another question if you haven't used up your personal time period of 5 mins speaking.
All videoed and written in the public record with local press reporting, I'm working on a scandal contract with a company providing a certain public service and nearly have enough evidence to raise my question at the next meeting. I'm hoping to bring my 4th councillor down, I don't care making enemies when they are corrupt wasting our tax money.
British cops are independent of our local government so they can't intimidate me lol 😂
Good luck with your mission 👍

a reply to: FamCore

I live in New Jersey. If you talk about it you will end up swimming with the fitches!

a reply to: dfnj2015

Governor Chris Christie and the likes of him (what a guy he is...) I'm not surprised. Hopefully the new governor is a little better? I'm doubtful but figured I'd ask...

No, bro our towns are not robbing us, Israel is robbing us. Every year we must pay more taxes that are given to Israel to commit more crimes in the Middle East. Why should we pay for another fake regime?