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State Auditor Rebecca Otto promises proactive, preventative approaches
State Auditor Rebecca Otto stopped in Walker July 26 as part of an outstate “excellence tour.”
by Gail DeBoer, Staff writer | Aug 04, 2010
State Auditor Rebecca Otto, DFL, says she loves her job and wants to keep it.
Otto is running for a second four-year term in the Nov. 2 general election. She stopped in Walker July 26 as part of an outstate “excellence tour.”
Does it really matter to people in outstate Minnesota who is elected state auditor?
Her answer is an emphatic and perhaps predictable “Yes!”, because the state auditor’s office provides oversight for numerous local government operations.
But there is a difference in how to approach that oversight, she pointed out.
Otto’s approach to oversight “is to be proactive and preventative. I’d rather help them get it right the first time than catch them doing something wrong.
That, she says, is a different approach from the past administration of opponent, Republican Pat Anderson, the former state auditor whom Otto defeated in 2006.
Otto said her office has issued a report that will help local governments look for ways to save money, such as reducing energy costs to save money so it will be available for firefighters, law enforcement, roads, bridges and libraries.
On the other hand, Otto said that Anderson advocated cutting local government aid, claiming it could be cut up to 43 percent with no impact on local governments. “She said libraries and parks are nonessential services,” Otto related.
Otto also critiqued Anderson’s record for both errors in judgment and in basic math. She stated that over the past four years, the auditor’s office has done nearly three times as many investigations as Anderson did while in office.
Otto also believes the state has shifted its own fiscal mess onto taxpayers.
“I’m there for the taxpayers. I’ll hold legislators and the governor accountable. We don’t want [costs] shifted to property taxes when we’re in an economic and foreclosure crisis. I don’t want the Legislature and governor pushing more people out of their homes because they’ve dumped the state’s fiscal issues on communities.”
Otto’s report on efficiency in government received the National Excellence in Accountability Award from the National State Auditor’s Association (NSAA), a nonpartisan group.
She also was elected to the NSAA Executive Committee, which puts her on track to become its president.
She is part of the Collaborative Governance Council where municipalities, counties and unions representing government employees seek ways to increase government innovation and collaboration in order to offset budget constraints.
“We can’t keep doing things as we did in the past,” she stated.