As lawmakers go about the painful business of cutting billions from the state budget, they should take one counterproductive idea off the table: raiding the money voters put in place for government performance audits.
At a time when taxpayers are expecting government to look inward for any and every way to deliver services more efficiently, House and Senate budget proposals would undermine the state auditor’s ability to provide just such guidance. An effort to save about $15 million could cost many, many times more.
State Auditor Brian Sonntag, in testimony before the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday, blasted the idea as “nothing short of an assault on what citizens expected the state to do” when they approved Initiative 900 in 2005, along with a funding stream to pay for it.
The legislative proposals would shift money from that dedicated account to pay for existing auditing programs under the Legislature’s and governor’s control. It reportedly would leave Sonntag’s office with enough money to proceed with planned audits for the next two years — including a statewide performance review requested by the governor — then gut the account.
Sonntag argues, convincingly, that performance audits done to date have proven their worth. Fifteen audits of state and local governments have been completed since I-900 became law, producing a ratio of $10 in recommended savings for every $1 spent, he said. For state government alone, Sonntag testified, nearly $500 million in potential savings have been identified.
One audit that Sonntag cited found that four of the state’s largest agencies could collect $320 million in delinquent debt simply by following industry best practices. At a time when severe cuts are being made to state services, government needs more such advice, not less.
Some voter-approved measures have come without dedicated funding streams, such as expensive initiatives to provide teacher pay raises and reduce class sizes. But I-900 included its own money — a tiny portion of state sales-tax receipts — as a way to ensure it worked as envisioned, finding ways to make government more efficient, effective and accountable.
The cuts needed to fill a $9 billion budget gap are extremely painful, and no agency should be exempt, including the auditor’s office. Sonntag must do his share of belt-tightening; he doesn’t argue otherwise. But the funding stream voters created for performance audits represents their expectation of better, more effective government — a message lawmakers would be wise to respect.
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