Every government however, at every level, is in fact a money machine that takes in and hands out money. Lots of money! Duxbury’s Money Machine, though modest in scale relative to, say, the City of Boston, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, or the government of the United States of America, is nevertheless huge relative to the scale of the average Duxbury household.

Duxbury’s annual operating budget for fiscal year 2013 is $57,023,635, up 3.76 percent from $54,946,335 in 2012. Nearly four fifths (78.80 percent) of that is raised via local real estate taxes, 11.74 percent via local receipts (fees, excise taxes, licenses and permits etc.), 9.13 percent from state aid, and mere smidge (0.35 percent) as other available funds (water enterprise fund contributions, pool fund contributions, etc.).

Nearly two thirds of that operating budget (63.22 percent) is spent on the schools, followed by public safety (police, fire, etc.: 15.64 percent), the Department of Public Works (8 percent), general government (5.17 percent), the Library and recreation (3 percent), the Water Department (3 percent), culture/human services, and the Percy Walker Pool (1 percent each). Salaries and related personnel expenses are the single biggest way in which this money is spent, but purchases of goods and services from outside parties, including contractors and consultants, still amount, annually, to many millions of dollars.

This nearly $60 million and growing sum is only, however, a portion of the total working of the Duxbury Money Machine. Recent passage of a long list of capital projects including crematory replacement ($2.66 million), fire station renovation ($3.7 million), a new police station ($6.275 million), and a new combined middle and high school ($126 million) will dramatically increase Duxbury’s debt (and taxes!) over the next few years and will give the Duxbury Money Machine at least another $140-150 million to spend over that period (though it will take over two decades to repay it).

Duxbury’s voters, citizens, and taxpayers have a right to know, in detail, exactly how all this money is spent, who gets it, how they are selected, and what they provide in return. In this computerized age, there is no valid reason why these details should not be available for scrutiny by any interested citizen.

The members of the Board of Selectmen and the Town Manager have an obligation and a duty to ensure complete transparency for the Duxbury Money Machine. Town Manager Richard MacDonald has done an excellent job, steadily increasing and improving the transparency of Duxbury’s Town Government. The Board of Selectmen should actively support and encourage, and certainly not obstruct him, in this effort.