Finally — the news is in and we know who is responsible for the criminal condition of our local government. We finally know who is responsible for making us the highest taxed municipality in the entire country, who is responsible for our spiraling population decline, economic depression, high utility costs and outrageous IDA taxpayer-piracy.

I am responsible for all of this.

It’s hard to wake up and admit this, but someone has to do it. If I sit back and do nothing to fix our problems, then they are my problems — and my responsibilities, and I deserve those burdens.

For us in Western New York, the bars on the cell of political freedom shut long ago, and we’ve been operating under oppression and harsh treatment from long-time incumbent leadership. They’ll let us out for some “yard time” once in a while; they’ll even let us operate some private businesses so long as we take very little profit and pay their exorbitant fees.

This is all my fault. I let it happen. I haven’t demanded more information, more accountability, more and better leadership. I’ve sat around and trusted that someone else would do it or — worse — I’ve sat around talking about it and not actually doing anything about it.

Well, I’m not going to take it anymore.

But I’m not going to start a riot. The physical methods of revolt are not only violent, but any success is temporary. Authority figures will say anything when you’ve got them by the throat with one hand and a sharp object in the other. They will go right back to their oppressive ways once you release your grip. And usually you’ve got the wrong person by the throat anyway. The big cheese is somewhere else, carving up more and more power play plans.

I’m also not going to do this alone. I have friends, and I’m going to ask them to help. If anyone tells you that they and they alone can make reform happen — escort them to the door and kick them in the butt on the way out. None of us can do this alone. We all need each other.

So friends, the process starts in Wheatfield of all places.

On Monday night of this past week, the Town of Wheatfield held a press conference to talk about town finances. This wasn’t just Bob Cliffe, the new supervisor, talking; the whole board was there with staff. They seemed relieved to all be using the same set of facts and figures and conducting an open discussion. I’m not saying that wasn’t always the case, but it sure seemed like this was a new occurrence. The gist of what they had to announce: our town is broke, things are bad, but we’re going to tell you anything you want to know anytime you want to know it.

Tim Demler made me this offer a few years ago and I didn’t really take him up on it. Another reason this is all my fault. Had I taken action a few years ag,o maybe some of the things uncovered this week could have been prevented.

Monday night, we learned some things that — while not huge — are symptoms of a greater sickness. We learned that the rug in the supervisor’s office was a custom-ordered $5,500 extravagance; we learned that the town had been paying $190 an hour to talk on the radio in Lockport; we learned that budgets were made up on-the-fly in the past few years and that the town could very easily have faced a control board situation had it not recently made drastic changes.

These were the small but interesting things. On a larger scale, the town has accumulated $16 million in debt, and Mastercard is making those annoying “over the limit” calls.

Cliffe seems to know the difference between cost and value. Everything costs something, but is there value?

Too often politicians get together in private and tell the same old stale joke: “We have bad news and good news. The bad news is we lost a lot of money this year. The good news is it wasn’t my money.”

Our goal as citizens is to make politicians realize that joke isn’t funny. To let them know we truly understand that it’s our money they are playing with.

Monday night, I got the impression that Cliffe and the leadership in Wheatfield are not going to tell that joke and they are not going to laugh if anyone else tells it either.

Tom Christy is founder of FAIR Government, a foundation dealing with local government issues. Visit www.fair-government.org. Contact him at aim1986@mac.com.