Legislation is moving through the state Senate that will “cut wasteful spending while ensuring taxpayers can see what their government is doing,” according to Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves.
While these are, as Reeves calls them, “good-government bills,” they are not good enough.
They are steps in the right direction, but they fall far short of ensuring that taxpayers can really “see what their government is doing.”
According to a press release issued by Reeves: “Senate Bill 2579 reorganizes the Department of Marine Resources and requires an annual audit of the agency. The bill also creates a chief financial officer at the agency and a legislative oversight committee to review fiscal decisions of the Commission of Marine Resources.”
This is long overdue.
When it was revealed that the DMR had operated for a decade without undergoing a comprehensive financial audit, officials and taxpayers alike were stunned.
But instead of singling out the DMR, the Legislature should require that each and every agency of state government conduct an annual audit at its own expense.
Then taxpayers could actually “see what their government is doing.”
Reeves’ press release also praises Senate Bill 2726, which “allows the state auditor to audit state-funded economic development projects and RESTORE Act funds the state may receive from any fines and settlements related to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The bill also allows the auditor to audit economic development programs at his discretion.”
The reason State Auditor Stacey Pickering gave for DMR being unaudited for so long was that his office did not have the money to audit every agency every year.
So how is Pickering supposed to exercise this new “discretion”? Will even more state agencies go unexamined so these new projects and funds can be audited?
Again, the cost of doing public business should automatically include the cost of an audit. It should be a mandatory part of each agency’s or project’s budget.
And the results should be readily available to the public in an easily accessible online format.
There is no excuse for the Legislature to timidly inch toward a full accounting of how tax money is spent year in and year out by every aspect of state government.
Every tax dollar spent by every public agency should be audited every year.
Forget the inches. It is time to go for the whole nine yards.
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