Whenever a government board or IDA or school district makes a purchase — equipment, vehicles, fuel, salt for the roads, building materials for an addition — you own a little piece of it.

So does your neighbor. So does the family on the other side of town. So does anyone in New York who pays property tax or sales tax or income tax or any other tax or fee that funnels into our state and local government coffers.

It’s your money that pays for all this stuff.

Yet you as the owners have no role in the decision-making process that goes into deciding what purchases are made or who is making them, there’s insufficient oversight in the auditing of those purchases, and there’s little transparency in the way the money is being........

© The Leader Herald