With a stroke of her pen, Governor Gregoire today restored the $29 million raided by lawmakers from the State Auditor's dedicated performance audit account. We first raised the prospect of a veto on April 29 after legislators ignored State Auditor Sonntag's request to reduce the 73% reduction in available performance audit funds. On May 5, Sonntag formally requested a veto in this letter to the Governor.
Discussing her veto, the Governor said the State Auditor has agreed to keep $15 million of the fu! nds in reserve to be transferred the next time the Legislature meets - this is the amount the Auditor had previously agreed to be reduced from the performance audit account.
At stake was whether or not the Auditor would be able to move forward with the comprehensive statewide performance review requested by the Governor while at the same time conducting robust performance audits of state and local governments to help identify opportunities for savings and reforms during this difficult economic time.
After the Governor issued her veto I asked the Auditor what this means for his performance audit work. This is what Sonntag told me: “We can now move ahead in our effort to help bring about real reform to state government programs, and at the same time honor our commitment to the citizens of the state who gave us performance audit responsibility.”
Illustrating the widespread public support for Sonntag's independent performance audit authority granted ! by the people in 2005, the state's newspaper editorial boa! rds unanimously called on the Governor to veto the Legislature's raid of $29 million from the performance audit account. Here are those editorials:
- Voter-approved performance audits should get funds to do the job, Union Bulletin
- This isn't the time to limit state auditor, Longview Daily News
- Gov. Gregoire should save performance audit program, Yakima Herald
- Gregoire, who often makes liberals wince, should protect performance audit funding, Columbian
- Preserve fund for agency performance assessments, Spokesman Review
- Gregoire will do the right thing, won't she?, Bellevue Reporter
- Gregoire on the spot over performance audits, Crosscut
- Give the money back to audit program, Olympian
- Use veto to restore funding, Everett Herald
- Save Sonntag's audits, Seattle Times
