A recently released audit shows just how careless governments can be with your money. In the town of Dayton, from 2016 to 2018, it ran a deficit of $109,663 in its general fund.

Its highway spending was even more reckless. Over those same three years, the town was in the hole $191,665.

These led for some tense times during meetings in the spring and fall of 2018 and later, ultimately, got the attention of state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

Angie Mardino-Miller, who took over as supervisor in 2018, acknowledged the financial crisis when she took the helm — and in her response to the report. “The (budget) process now includes budget requests from department heads, and a thorough workshop where all accounts in the budget are analyzed and discussed by the town supervisor, town board, highway superintendent, town clerk, accounting firm and the town attorney,” Mardino-Miller said in the audit.

Why wasn’t this happening before? There’s no good answer for that.