Exactly this. Have them open the books and show their budget spending first.

I am sure there is a lot of waste, wrongful overtime and pocketing of money.

I remember the last time they said they needed more money. Not from a fair hike but from the state and they said, hey let’s have a look at them books. Needless to say they came back and said, oh wait. Forgot about it we “found “ the money needed. There were error in the records. Hmm