The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-02-25
LESSON IN TOWN FINANCES.
Waterbury Record Urges Closer Atten-
tion to Expenditures.

The question of town finances is being
discussed, yes, cussed, by nearly every
Taxpayer. The friendly warning as pie
tured in this paper in its last issue is
sure to produce results. 1t was not our
object and certainly the farthest from
our thoughts to drive it into any official
or board OF officials. Results are not pro-
duced this way If by chance, you have
heard any officials saying naughty things
about the article or the writer of the edi-
torials you can make up your mind
that the coat lust about fitted" the man
who is doing the talking and if his term
of Office does not expire, he should be
asked forthwith to resign. Our sugges-
tion would be to resign before the March
meeting, thus saving decidedly awk-
ward situation at the annual meeting.
There are some phases of the towns
method in which the business is conduct
ed that hardly looks 10 the average tax
| payer Tor at least to the writer as quite
| the proper manner to handle the big
problem.
| The writer asked one of the selectmen
the other day-yes, last Saturday-iust
when it was discovered that the town
had run into debt so during the past
year. The reply was: when the audit
ors commenced work on the books" Now
don't put all the blame onto the select
men. Just consider the system. The Sc.
lectmen have an order book. and upon
presentation of these signed orders, your
town treasurer pays. Your road commits
sioner has an order book. your treasurer
pays his signed orders. Your overseer of
poor has an order book, your treasurer
pays his signed orders. Your board of
school directors have an order book your
treasurer pays their signed orders. In
other words, four different sets OF officers
drawing orders on your Treasurer, and he !
is the only official who knows the extent |
of the disbursements. Still you call the |
selectmen the fathers of your town, and |
the only knowledge they have of what |
the other departments have paid out dur
ing the year, is when the auditors meet
Surprising business man was doing a |
one hundred and twenty thousand
dollar business year, deposited the
money i'll your local bank, passed out
four check books to different depart
ment heads and paid no more attention
to it until auditing time at the end of
the year, and the different department
the year. just what do YOU imagine the
result would be? We have our notion in
the matter.
We would like to see a resolution in
troduced at the coming March meeting
nstructing each official or board of off
,ials to mail to the town clerk on the
first day of each month, a list of the or.
iers, giving the total for the month
This would give the selectmen an oppor-
unity to keep tabs on how fast the tax
money was going. and certain authority
should be given them to say halt when
,he tax money is all gone.
Your selectmen are as helpless as a
hid, the way in which affairs are now
'un. Your road commissioner, your over
eer of poor, your school directors (thank :
GOODNESS. they did business last year
within their tax can run the town in
Iebt by improvements and semi-improve-
nents, and no official or board of officials
ave the authority to issue a stop order.
four town runs in debt your selectmen
-et gentle things said about them when.
n some instances, they are not in the
east TO blame mot always.
For the good of Waterbury. which
means every taxpayer, in fact, every
esident of the best community of Yer
mont, lets make some changes in our
usiness methods of handling town af- :
airs. Let's know where we are at. not
nee a year, but twelve times a year.
Some very important officials are to
e elected at the annual March meeting. g
H., one selectmsn fpossibly threel, road L
overseer of poor. and one +,
shool director. Some men whose terms "
Spire should be reelected. This paper le
pes not propose to advocate local men in
,r town office. The readers Of this pa q
nr know the different candidates (lots Il
them qualifications for the position V
y which they aspire. II you think they T
he capable Of doing their par1 in hand
ng uue hundred and thirty thousand Dc
liar business this j. just about what les
amounts 70 including the debt and tax
} b votedl. do your part toward elect Pl
3 thsn--WsterbuTy Record er