On Wednesday, the state House overwhelmingly passed HB 1064, a bill authorizing (and funding) the state auditor to conduct independent, comprehensive performance audits. The bill is enthusiastically supported by State Auditor Brian Sonntag, whose office issued a document summarizing the bill, and a statement that includes the following endorsement:
We’re happy and highly supportive of the bill, particularly after being out front
Goldy, it might help people to actually read the bill that the House passed, HB 1064 on performance audits:
http://www.leg.wa.gov/pub/bill.....64-S.E.htm
Section 3 of the bill sets up a so-called “Citizen’s Advisory Board” with seven voting members, all of whom are appointed by the Governor!
Two members will be chosen from nominees of Republicans in the House & Senate and two members will be chosen from nominees of Democrats in the House & Senate. The Governor will also appoint three people of her (or his?) own choosing.
Section 5 of the bill provides that this so-called “Citizen’s Advisory Board” (and not the State Auditor) will determine the scope and criteria for performance audits of each state agency.
Consider what this means. Regardless of which party controls the Governor’s office, the so-called “Citizen’s Advisory Board” will always have five out of seven members aligned with the Governor — two members chosen by legislators from the Governor’s party and three members chosen directly by the Governor.
Therefore, it is highly unlikely that this so-called “Citizen’s Advisory Board” will conduct serious performance audits of state agencies, if the Governor is opposed to this happening.
So, if Gregoire remains Governor, the so-called “Citizen’s Advisory Board” can block the State Auditor from conducting an effective performance audit of DSHS and all of the money that is wasted by or defrauded from that agency.
Similarly, if Rossi becomes Governor, and appoints a developer to head the Department of Ecology, the so-called “Citizen’s Advisory Board” can block the State Auditor from conducting an effective performance audit of how little that agency might end up doing.
Oh, by the way, here is the kicker. The State Auditor actually is NOT going to be doing ANY performance audits under the bill as passed by the state House of Representatives. No kidding.
Paragraph 1(e) of Section 5 of the House-passed version of the bill states: “The state auditor shall contract out for performance audits.” Rather than having state employees do these audits, expensive outside accounting firms will be hired on a case-by-case basis for each performance audit.
This provision should generate a lot of money in campaign contributions to both the Governor and State Auditor from big accounting firms that land lucrative contracts to do these performance audits. And it should cost taxpayers at least two to three times as much as doing a performance audit with regular employees of the State Auditor.
House Republicans wanted to change the bill, so that the State Auditor would determine the scope of performance audits and also be able to use regular employees of the office to perform these audits. This amendment was narrowly rejected by a 47 to 49 vote, mostly along party lines.
Tim Eyman’s Initiative 900 is looking better all the time. The House Democrats are responsible for hammering through a ridiculously ineffective and needlessly expensive performance audit bill. I-900 will probably be a lot less expensive, even with auditing local governments as well, than hiring high priced private firms under HB 1064.
Eyman now has a decent chance to get I-900 on the ballot, and get the people to support its passage in the election this November.
Well, well well.
How VERY interesting!
I came on to comment about Governor Whiners accustion of talk radio for her “death threats”, lo and behold, it’s been deleted!!
Could it possibly be because she was proven a LIAR by the folks that actually protect her?
Even this internet addy has her pegged: death threat OPPORTUNISM
http://radioequalizer.blogspot.....unism.html
Update: 10:40AM– The Washington State Patrol doesn’t know what Gregoire is talking about in linking threats to talk radio!
(Seattle Times) Capt. Jeff DeVere, spokesman for the State Patrol, would not discuss threats against Gregoire or extra security measures. DeVere said he didn’t know what Gregoire was referring to in mentioning talk radio.
Gregoire said she also received death threats during her time as attorney general, and she said they won’t interfere with her ability to function as governor.
Gosh, I wonder if she has ‘tasters’ nibbling that take out pizza before she chows down.
Never one to run away from my mistake, I screwed up!
Gody did NOT have a post regarding this, a blogger did under a different article.
That being said, I stand by the rest!
ProudAss… I don’t wish to elaborate, but let’s just say it is very easy for me to imagine that Gregoire has received death threats. There are some stupid, crazy people out there, and the extreme, hateful rhetoric could easily encourage them to do stupid, crazy things.
# 2 & # 3 HowCanYouBePROUDtobeAnASS
How about looking at HB 1064 and I-900, and tellings us what you think about the performance audit situation? I really think that the Evergreen Freedom Foundation is right about this one.
Well Richard, sadly, you’ll just have to do without my musings till Sunday, maybe even Monday. I can just hear the groan of regret from all the kind folks here eye roll & a snicker for good measure.
At this moment, HB1064 and I-900 have barely been a blip on my radar. I’ll look into them next week.
A citizens advisory panel appointed by the Governor?!! OMG!!! Wonder if the r/w sportsmen will go berserk if they find out the entire Fish & Wildlife Commission is appointed by the Governor! For that matter, nearly all of the state’s 200-some boards, commissions, and advisory panels are appointed by the Governor! Holy shit! Call the police! Call the fire department! Call Homeland Security! We’re gonna have a bunch of little Gregoire clones running around all over the state!
Richard @ 1
I’m with you on this one, particularly on the contracting out of the auditing. I suppose the notion is that an outside firm will be more objective. My concern is that an outside firm would be less effective, in addition to being unnecessarily expensive. To do an effective audit, the auditors need to look not only at outcomes, but also at process. Process in any large organization can be very arcane. A concern is that taxpayers would be continuously paying the OJT costs for the ever changing workforce employed by contractors to perform the audits, whereas a workforce located in the Auditor’s office would be dedicated to the function and would either know or learn and retain the intricacies of state agencies. Also, I put more trust in the Auditor, who has to answer to the people, than in the unknown motives of a contractor.
I don’t have the concerns you have about the CAB, except to say it seems unnecessary. The Auditor can determine the scope and criteria for audits. If he/she wants to form a citizen’s group to advise on this, great, but it doesn’t need to be in the legislation. Also, the legislature is free to act at any time if the collective wisdom there believes that the auditor needs binding criteria.
We part company on I-900. It over reaches, it’s linked to Eyeman (which puts me on guard instinctively), and it’s another attempt to do an end-run around the people we elect to do our legislating for us (which is to say at this point I am more distrustful of the initiative process than the legislative one).
Goldy, THIS time I’m w/ EFF.
Unelected boards telling elected officials what to do IS a dumb idea, close quote.