Anderson Pledges to Restore Fiscal Responsibility and Transparency to the State Auditors Office
St. Paul, Minn. — June 2010 — State Auditor candidate Pat Anderson completed her month long tour of Minnesota yesterday with a final stop in Two Harbors. This marked the 124th stop Pat has made in the last six weeks and signals the return of the Taxpayers’ Watchdog.
“It’s great to be back. I love traveling the state, talking to citizens and local leaders. When I served as State Auditor in the past, I continuously travelled the state reaching out to communities and listening to residents. Over the last four years many things have changed and it is now clear to me that government is no longer working for the people,” said Anderson.
Anderson continued, “Minnesota is broke and faces an unprecedented fiscal crises. Politicians in St. Paul have long known where we are heading but have done nothing to remedy the situation. People are tired of the finger-pointing and blame games and are looking for leaders who can get the job done.”
“Next year we will begin with a 20% general fund budget deficit and will no longer have the low hanging fruit to cut. We have to make some tough decisions as how to best spend our limited funds,” said Anderson. Most of those dollars are sent directly to cities, counties and school districts, areas the State Auditor oversees.
“A key step to permanently fixing our budget deficit is re-evaluating not only the size of government but its scope as well. We need to have the difficult conversations as to what the essential services are that government should provide.”
As State Auditor, Anderson will seek to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse with in the system. “We need to stop taking taxpayer funds for granted and ensure that every penny of their hard earned money is spent wisely,” Anderson exclaimed.
Anderson has also been clear that the she will work to reform LGA and local mandates. “The LGA formula needs to be re-evaluated. There is no longer any linkage between need and funds received. We need to match the funds allocated with the needs of individual communities to provide essential services and to do that we need a better formula. And once that formula is determined, we need to have consistency so local governments can budget. In addition, we also need to free those local communities of the mandates placed on them. If we are really looking for ways to create more efficiencies, we need to give people the authority to do it.”
The problems we are facing are serious and need to be addressed immediately. Yet the incumbent Auditor has been absent from the job. “As I traveled the state, I hear the same story from journalists and citizens alike, no one has heard from the current State Auditor in the last four years.”
We can no longer afford incumbents that ignore the problems of their constituents or pass them along to future generations. Minnesota deserves representatives with the courage to make the hard decisions and restore responsibility to the offices they hold.
“The State Auditor is the taxpayers line of defense. It is the only elected position who’s job it is to make sure our tax dollars are spent wisely. Over the past four years, our watchdog has been more of a lapdog – when she is even on the job.” “It’s time to bring an active state auditor back to this position.”
When the current State Auditor Rebecca Otto announced her re-election bid at a press conference in January, she was asked by the media why she has been so invisible. She answered that she “gets no respect” and that her accomplishments in office were “bigger computer screens and a telecommuting policy”.
Anderson is the Republican candidate for State Auditor. She served as the State Auditor from 2003-2007 and Commissioner of the Department of Employee Relations from 2007-2008. Anderson is also the former Mayor of Eagan.
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