Audit critical of Carlton town finances should prompt residents to pay closer attention to local government

Editor:

I recently read a news story entitled, “Comptroller critical of Carlton for managing town finances” and was dismayed and angry as another state audit reveals a problem with yet another town in our county.

As I read that Carlton received an award of $25,000 from the World Fishing Network, which was deposited in “its own account” and that there were 34 disbursements totaling $19,619, which was not reported to the town board I (being a suspicious person) wondered why would anyone do this? I then read the town was “engaging professional services” and also “has engaged a CPA firm to audit the town books.”

My question is: are these firms free or are they costing the taxpayers of Carlton extra tax dollars simply because someone at the town hall was not doing their job?

Recently there were several letters to the editor that asked residents to get involved with the political committees (the Republican and Conservative party committees reorganize this year).

Another letter stated it is time to “shake things up” and a third stated that shaking things up simply to make changes would be a mistake.

I would argue that this latest, and it is just the latest, troubling state audit is the very reason we do need to shake things up and the way to do that is to get involved in the various political committee(s).

If you don’t care how your money is being spent, simply do nothing for, as they say, if we keep doing what we’ve always done we will keep getting what we’ve always got, which in this case is another town failing its residents.

Ken Longer

Kendall