Still no hard copy of audit

To the Editor:

The 2017 fourth quarter taxes are due and payable but still no “hard copy” of the 2016 audit for the town available to taxpayers. What is this administration afraid of, the truth? It’s a game being played by the Mayor and Council to keep someone like this writer from questioning where and what has happened to the $98,588,765 budgeted for fiscal year 2016?

I visited Town Hall on April 6, 2017 asking to review that 2016 audit report and was told it had to be presented to the Town Council first by this town’s auditor for their acceptance before being released. Taxpayers of Johnston are once again facing an illusive audit report that somehow is like looking for those Easter eggs hidden in the bowels of Town Hall.

It does seem like a game being played by this administration and of course a willing accomplice in the Town Council. While the 2016 audit is not available for Johnston taxpayers it is on the website of the Department of Municipal Affairs. Now ask oneself who gave that department authorization to put it on their statewide website? What if a person like this writer who has no access to that website just continue to go along with this administration’s game of the hidden audit (eggs)?

Is this administration setting taxpayers up for a tax rate increase in its 2018 budget? Remember this is not an election year and always a good time for a tax increase. How and when will taxpayers of Johnston be told about the $200,000,000 plus liabilities in both our pension plans and other unpaid benefit programs? We cannot blame our current Mayor for this liability others have proceeded him? But the time is upon us when we discontinue playing the hidden audit report game and face up to the facts.

What will this 2018 fiscal year bring to the taxpayers of Johnston?

Ernest F. Pitochelli

Johnston