Audit bill framework for regaining voter trust

Voters who think state lawmakers haven’t gotten the message that accountability is Priority One should take a look at a bipartisan bill that’s scheduled to get a Senate hearing this week.

Senate Bill 5909, introduced Friday by Sen. Aaron Reardon (D-Everett), institutes regular, systematic performance audits of state agencies, improving on a performance-audit bill that passed the House unanimously. Reardon’s bill not only creates a bipartisan board to oversee audits conducted by the state auditor, it puts the focus in the right place by listing state government’s key priorities and scrutinizing how well each of those priorities are being met.

Those priorities are:

Improve student achievement in elementary, middle and high schools;

Improve the quality and productivity of the state’s work force;

Improve the value of a state college or university education;

Improve the health of the state’s citizens;

Improve the security of the state’s vulnerable children and adults;

Improve the economic vitality of businesses and individuals;

Improve statewide mobility of people, goods, information and energy;

Improve the safety of people and property;

Improve the quality of the state’s natural resources; and

Improve cultural and recreational opportunities throughout the state.

Patterned after the Priorities of Government process Gov. Gary Locke used to plan how to close the current $2.4 billion budget gap, the list would force performance audits to be targeted in areas where they’re most likely to make a difference.

Performance audit bills have been kicked around for years, but the resounding defeat of Referendum 51 in November has finally given life to the idea. In putting together a detailed plan for its success, the moderate Reardon has enlisted 19 co-sponsors, including powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dino Rossi, a Republican. Also co-sponsoring the bill are four senators from Snohomish County: Democrats Paull Shin and Rosemary McAuliffe, and Republicans Val Stevens and Dave Schmidt. Rossi’s committee is scheduled to hear the bill on Thursday.

Presuming it makes it through both houses, lawmakers will still have to approve funding for performance audits, to the tune of $5 million per year. That’s a ridiculously small investment to make in accountability, and one that will no doubt pay for itself several times over.

Setting priorities and then being accountable for them is a simple formula already used by successful businesses and families. By focusing on all state government functions under a certain priority, light will shine not only on big agencies, but on smaller ones whose original mission might no longer apply. To be effective, government must continually evolve, which implies not only creating new programs, but jettisoning outdated ones.

Voter trust won’t be regained overnight — in fact, it will take years. Reardon’s bill provides a promising framework for getting started.