In response to my recent email announcing my campaign’s Jefferson Birthday Money Bomb on April 13. I received some interesting feedback:

“Why should I contribute money to this campaign? How will she do things differently than her competition? What is her value added statement? What is going to be the return on my investment? What are your detailed plans on spending for the campaign? How will you use the money that you have raised responsibly? Where is the transparency?”

That’s a lot of questions. I could simple point the writer to my website, my previous email updates, and the many commentaries I’ve written for the media and the media reports on my public and private career accomplishments. But that, I realize, is a politician’s response. I owe the writer a better response.

His question that really got me thinking was “What is going to be the return on my investment (for a contribution to my campaign)?” A lot of politicians would answer that one based on where the question comes from. Politicians are always talking about what they will do for this or that special interest group. Legislative and gubernatorial candidates count votes by what they are “going to do” for one group or another. As State Auditor, I have but one special interest group to consider – the taxpayers of Minnesota.

In purely dollar terms, in my first term as State Auditor my office saved the taxpayers of Minnesota tens of millions of dollars. I did so not just as a function of the minimum duties of the job. I did it by aggressively attacking known problem areas, like public pension funds, that were politically too hot for the Legislature or the Governor’s Office to tackle. As I’ve noted before, the State Auditor is independent of both the Legislature and the Governor and provides a check on the policies of each.

The ROI on my first term as State Auditor for the citizens of Minneapolis and statewide taxpayers was the millions of dollars saved by my office’s investigation into the Minneapolis Police and Fire Pension funds, which uncovered systematic over payments to the funds by the city. (I supported the city’s and Mayor R.T. Rybak’s handling of the case.) The ROI can be measured in the money saved local school districts by my office’s investigation into fraudulent schemes in sales to those districts, and by many other investigations and studies I did while in the Auditor’s office.

But there is more than just a monetary ROI on your investment in my campaign. One of the most pressing problems Minnesota faces is disconnect between state and local governments over the issue of local government aid and state mandated spending. I could, like my opponent, support raising taxes and promise local governments more aid – the politician’s definition of ROI, quid pro quo, favors for votes.  I won’t do that.

My promise to you is to use the Office of the State Auditor to get the best ROI for the state of Minnesota by pushing for reform of the relationship between state and local government — reducing local aid but also reducing state mandates on local government. Local governments must have more control over both the revenue-raising and spending sides of their budgets in order to operate efficiently for the benefit of local citizens. The ROI of such reform is not measured in dollar terms alone; it is measured in terms of more effective local governments making better decisions to the benefit of local citizens.

My focus on structural reform of government, versus the current State Auditor’s focus on computer equipment for her office and training local governments how to work the current system to score more tax dollars is significant.

I’ve gone on a bit about ROI because it is an important question, and one I hadn’t thought about in exactly those terms. I’ll address the questions of added value and campaign spending in a future email updates during our Jefferson Birthday Money Bomb drive ending April 13. For now let me leave you with this quote from Mr. Jefferson in a letter to George Washington:

“Never spend your money before you have it.”

I promise you I’ll deliver you a positive ROI in your investment in my campaign. I did it before and I will do it again. Help me by clicking here and making a donation to my campaign, your campaign for better state AND local government.

Thank you for your support.

Pat

PS — Don’t forget to check my website between now and April 13th for the Thomas Jefferson Quote of the Day.