Governor: restore the State Auditor's Funding.

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Neat, isn't it?

The leftists running the Leg always seem to be able to find a way to scrounge up cash for crap like this:

$750,000 for Ward Lake purchase for Olympia parks...

$1.115 million for the Vashon Arts Center...

$325,000 for the Federal Way Performing Arts Center...

$950,000 for a "Zina Linnik Park"...

So, not only do they ignore the expressed will of the people via the initiative process, they hamstring the Auditor, Brian Sonntag, from implementing I-900 as the PEOPLE of this state demanded.

Is there some PARTICULAR reason the leftists don't want Brian lifting their rocks to see what crawls out underneath?

Ron Hebron over at Sound Politics nails it:

Sound Politics
Sound Commentary on Current Events in Seattle, Puget Sound and Washington State

May 18, 2009

State Auditor Sonntag plays hardball over "dumb" cut to performance audits

In their desperation to save money the Legislature made a cut that will result in more spending, not less. State Auditor Brian Sonntag has made some real hits (baseball analogy) with his performance audits. He is hurting our elected officials' ability to protect their favorite programs and hire each other's kids. He is using objective measures and informed judgment. They just had to do something!

Seattle Times Newspaper:

State Auditor Brian Sonntag is a serious baseball fan. He's a regular at Mariners games and has a rack stuffed with 20 wooden bats in his office. An inscribed ceramic ball on his desk reads: "Sometimes you just have to play hardball."

Hardball is what the 57-year-old Democrat seems to have in mind when it comes to fighting the Legislature's $29 million cut to his performance-audit program, which seeks to find efficiencies in state and local governments.

He's asked Gov. Chris Gregoire to restore at least some of the money, saying the cut "decimates" a program that's found millions in potential savings. Gregoire is expected to decide by Tuesday.

Sonntag has publicly described the money grab as a "sucker punch" and has thrown around words like "stupid," "dumb," "ridiculous" and "unacceptable" when talking about the plan. That's not how politicians typically describe the work of other elected officials, especially members of their party who control the purse strings.

Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Margarita Prentice, D-Renton, said Sonntag is blowing the impact of the cut out of proportion. Her advice to him: "Cool it."

... Sonntag's office said it's working on a report that will show how much money the audits have saved.

It's not available yet, but the office points to an audit of the state Department of Labor and Industries as an example. The audit recommended ways to improve the agency's collection of benefit overpayments. As a result, the department had a 50 percent increase in collections, worth $4.6 million in 2007, according to the auditor's office and Labor and Industries.

Overall, Sonntag's office has received high marks for several performance audits, including a 2007 review of the Port of Seattle that said its contracting practices were lax and ripe for fraud and abuse. The audit prompted a federal investigation and a Port-funded probe that identified 10 cases of fraud.

A series of audits of the state Department of Transportation, however, received mixed reviews.

...If you agree with distinguished Senator Prentice then sit on your hands. If you agree with Sonntag then call Chris Gregoire.

See also Save Perfornance Audits - Evergreen Freedom Foundation - Olympian "Give the money back to audit program"

At one of those sources I saw the email addresses of Chris Gregoire's senior staff members in a comment; don't recall which.

Posted by Ron Hebron at May 18, 2009 07:17 AM Email This

____________________________________________________

In a war of money, keeping your top defense organization from getting the right kind and number of bullets makes absolutely zero sense.

Zero.

Restore the damned money. Knock of this kind crap before the people REALLY get steamed.

Or don't. And we'll see you in November next year.

Leg Democrats cripple Sonntag's Shop: In the midst of a horrific recession and deficit, who wants to make sure the money's being properly spent?

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Regular readers know that Brian Sonntag is my standard, don't give it a second thought, democrat vote in any election.

I have studied his work close up, and had his reports been inculcated in the Legislature, there is no way our state's deficit would be approaching $10 Billion.

Sonntag and his people have ferreted out over $3 BILLION in illegally, misspent and lost funds to our state agencies and various others whose faces are buried in the state trough.

The Legislature, regardless of who is in charge, rarely responds to Sonntag's efforts. Imagine what our tax picture and economic situation would look like if these clowns had only implemented the changes Sonntag has requested.

Brad Shannon:
The Politics Blog

Brad Shannon maintains this blog. He is political editor at The Olympian and can be reached at 360-753-1688 or bshannon@theolympian.com.

UPDATED: Auditor says budget cut 'ridiculous and offensive'

• Published April 24, 2009
Comments (2)
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State Auditor Brian Sonntag doesn't get mad publicly too often. But he's not happy about a $29 million budget cut, all in the performance audits section meant to find ways to limit government waste.

Sonntag is in Dallas this morning talking about performance audits, but he sent a letter today to House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, blasting the cuts in the proposed budget amendment to Substitute House Bill 1214. It's basically the House-Senate budget compromise announced last evening with few details at the time.

"The section that sweeps away most of our performance audit funding is ridiculous and offensive both to us and to citizens," Sonntag wrote. "The cuts are unacceptable and will severely undercut our ability to do independent performance audits.''

The cuts leave $10 million for the audits and a provision allows for more money depending on savings actually accruing from agencies enacting Sonntag's performance recommendations.

Sonntag called that unworkable.

He sent Chopp his cell phone number, saying he'd like to talk.

Longtime audit fan Jason Mercier of the Washington Policy Center asked in this blog post today "if the State Auditor is now considering changing the 'incomplete grade' he gave lawmakers in this TVW interview yesterday to 'failing.' "

Mercier asks a good question. I would follow by asking if lawmakers really care at this late hour of their session. Their budget does leave some money for audits, and they can always adjust things in January, if new revenues show up.

UPDATE: Mercier tells me the $10 million compares to the $16 million the Auditor’s Office spent through March for performance audits, which gauge efficiency. Auditor spokeswoman Mindy Chambers said the agency had sought $27.4 million, which Gov. Chris Gregoire put in her budget in December, before the revenue situation deteriorated even more sharply.

“What that really does is scale us back to the performance review that we hope to do,” Chambers said. The review is “a statewide risk assessment to take a look at places we could bore into with performance audits.’’

It could look at duplicated services provided by multiple agencies in technology, purchasing and leasing practices, for instance. In the meantime, Chopp and Sonntag spoke on the phone. The outcome we’re waiting to hear about.

The Broken Clock Syndrome strikes again - In our view Dec. 15: Keep Golden Goose

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I've been following the efforts of Democratic State Auditor Brian Sonntag. He's my only guaranteed democrat vote each and every election (Though my sense of disappointment caused me to vote for more democrats in the last election (I voted for D's at Secretary of State, State Auditor, State Senator, and one House seat; I undervoted for president, congressman, a commissioner seat, Commissioner of Public Lands and Governor.))

Through the years, I've seen Brian literally identify billions (BILLIONS) in stolen, misspent, and illegally spent taxpayer dollars; only to see the legislature and the governor do little to nothing with his findings.

Here, the government's efforts to defund the one office that could arguably pay for itself is nothing more nor less then an effort to remove the irritant that is State Auditor Brian Sonntag.

Keeping him in business and implementing the will of the people in the form of the Initiative that expanded his powers should be a top priority of government. We need his office now more than ever.

The Law of Averages being what it is, The Columbian occasionally, actually, gets it right. Only slightly more frequent then a Haley's Comet fly-by, they manage to get the message. This is one of those times.

Editorials

In our view Dec. 15: Keep Golden Goose
Performance audits produce savings; even in tough economy, they should be kept

Monday, December 15 1:00 a.m.

In this time of financial stress, it doesn’t require much imagination to consider performance audits as a Golden Goose that might be killed by overzealous budget-slashers in Olympia. At this point, the $26 million that would fund the audits is on the chopping block, along with scores of cuts in programs and services across Washington.

Approved in the November 2005 general election, Initiative 900 requires performance audits be conducted on state and local agencies. The purposes are accountability for tax dollars and a guarantee that the money is spent in a cost-effective manner.

To date, the auditor’s office, at a cost of $14.9 million, has conducted 14 performance audits, and made 574 recommendations that total $4.1 billion in “financial impact.” That’s the “Golden Goose.”

Examining school district practices in Vancouver and Evergreen, the state auditor found Vancouver schools could save $8.5 million over five years and Evergreen schools could save $3.3 million in the same time, according to an Oct. 2 Columbian story.

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