“At a recent town board meeting, Duanesburg Supervisor Roger Tidball announced that the town was going to receive an audit by the state Comptroller’s Office. This audit is long overdue.
Several months ago, I asked Mr. Tidball what the town’s surplus was. He responded with an answer of $700,000. When the town financial statements were finally posted to the town website, the real total was in excess of $1.7 million.
The town continues to overestimate expenditures and under-forecast revenues. This practice has been going for a number of years by this same group of Republicans.
This practice was noted in the 2014 Comptroller’s audit, but the town has continued to ignore this finding. Town taxes could be eliminated for a few years by using surplus funds to avoid levying more property tax.
The worst of it is that those surplus funds can be spent with virtually no taxpayer oversight. Mr. Tidball, to my knowledge, has never been on time with the town’s annual audit. It’s due in the Comptroller’s Office by April 30 of the next calendar year. The 2017 town accounting was finally posted on the website in November, over six months late. There is no way to know if it was filed on time.
To make matters worse, there is no dissenting voice on this board.
I’m hopeful residents will vote for Tom Collins, who will provide an independent voice for our residents. More residents need to come forward to help stop the overtaxing strategies of this group.
William H. Park
Delanson
The writer is a former 14-year supervisor of the town of Duanesburg.
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Park, William. Schenectady Gazette