Legislative Audit Bureau still alive and kicking Republican ass...

In a nicely written piece for the Cap Times, Sen. Kathleen Vinehout details the importance of the Legislative Audit Bureau, and how it's the only way we can determine if the government is doing a good job or not and whether the laws passed were working. Kind of important right?

Vinehout also took the opportunity to remind voters what happened around June 9th, 2015:

These two dangerous GOP knuckleheads, Rep.'s Jarcho and Craig, wanted to take away the only measuring stick available to hold the Walker administration and majority Republican legislators accountable to voters. In a twisted "cart before the horse" kind of logic, Jarcho and Craig argued the LAB didn't somehow prevent problems their backward GOP legislation created. They thought, what good is the report if it's after the fact? You can't make this stuff up:

They said the bureau does a “tremendous” job, but it fails to prevent problems. Jarchow and Craig said in the email:

“Unfortunately, the statutory process under which the LAB operates focuses more on retrospective examination rather than proactive fiscal action and bad practice (deterrence). In many instances, by the time an audit has occurred the political will (or new legislative composition) necessary to change a state program has diminished.” 

Jarcho and Craig wanted to replace the LAB with partisan inspectors general...for the heck of it?

Under the bill, the audit bureau would be replaced by a system of inspectors general working within state agencies. Rep. David Craig wasn’t available to discuss his assertion that the inspectors would be better at getting ahead of problems.

Maybe there was an even more devious plan? Yup, and since both Legislators are anti-environment, is it any surprise this additional provision was included:

The proposal includes a provision that would require anyone challenging a state agency decision to seek review by an inspector general before using another avenue, such as a contested case hearing in which an administrative judge rules. Environmental groups use the hearings to contest state Department of Natural Resources pollution permits they believe provide inadequate protections to air and water quality.

As Vinehout detailed, this is what we would have been missing. The point is, the LAB shows us ways to improve legislation:

The Legislative Audit Bureau helps answer questions about the effectiveness and efficiencies of state government. Recently, the work of the nonpartisan LAB was given the highest possible rating by the National State Auditors Association. The auditors’ work provides answers to questions such as: Did the program meet its goals? Did the program follow state law? How was the money spent?

Without the LAB’s work, our state would not be able to conduct business with the federal government due to requirements for a review. Nearly 30 percent of Wisconsin’s $76 billion budget is federal money. Without the work of the Audit Bureau our state could not borrow money or issue bonds. Our state has about $14 billion in bonds (debt).

The LAB staffers are the sentinels of state government. They point the way to problems, offer recommendations to solve those problems, and give the “all clear” that everything is working well.

Republicans ignore Jobs, Wages, Business Startups...dream up ways to stay in Power.

Imagine finally electing a Democratic governor, bringing to an end one party Republican rule. Well, that's not going to make much difference if Republicans get their way.

The scheme is simple and costly to taxpayers: Our Republican gerrymandered legislature is planning to insert their own partisan “inspector generals” into the governors agencies to supposedly stop what they would call “waste, fraud and abuse.” Hey, it’s just oversight of the executive branch, that’s all, a not so separation of powers grab.

And it would cost every budget tight department hundreds of thousands of dollars. LaCrosse Tribune:

Republican lawmakers are pushing a bill that … could cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars and open the door to cronyism, according to critics.

Not mentioned in the article? How this proposal sets up an earlier Republican idea that would get rid of the Legislative Audit Bureau. That didn't go over very well, but who knows, maybe no one will notice this time.

And with their partisan “inspector generals” in place for 6 years, they could muck up and delay state agencies until another election cycle.

Craig

Rep. David Craig and Sen. Stephen Nass’ proposal calls for 13 inspectors general … assigned to investigate waste, fraud and abuse across 16 state agencies, including the University of Wisconsin System, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and the departments of Administration, Corrections, Natural Resources and Public Instruction.

And what about conveniently timed “investigations:”

Legislative leaders also could direct the inspectors general to investigate agencies.

Of course they could. 

The inspectors general would be more pro-active than the Legislative Audit Bureau, which typically launches its reviews after the fact, they said. The party that controls the Legislature can further entrench itself by placing its inspectors general appointees within state agencies for six years. The inspectors general may feel beholden to launch or drop investigations according to partisan wishes.

Matt Rothschild, executive director of government watchdog group Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, warned “This could increase cronyism. It could increase corruption. It could entrench one-party rule. All three of those things are bad for democracy.”

You might have noticed the enemy of public education and the UW, Sen. Steve Nass, will have his inspector hitman inside the university to dig up another convenient phony outrage to cut even more funding. 

Republican Fiscal Clowns Propose Politically Filtered Audits.

So, Republican voters would rather not know if their hard earned money is being spent wisely by their party leaders? I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised after seeing how easy it was for Walker to just keep borrowing money for transportation with no constituent outrage.  

Tweedledee and Tweedledumb!!!

I also wondered why I didn’t hear a peep out of “stand with Walker” trolls when Scottie wanted to change WEDC again, but this time with no financial oversight whatsoever.  

When that happened, Walker and his band of legislative pirates took their cue, and thought, “what the heck let’s get rid of the Legislative Audit Bureau.” After-all, they catch bad management after the fact, when it’s too late, embarrassing for them, at when no one cares anymore. Check out the pretzel logic:

Wisconsin Republicans propose abolishing the Legislative Audit Bureau: The Legislative Audit Bureau has been the source of some bad news lately for Republicans and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation they created in 2011. Now, two GOP lawmakers have a solution: eliminate the bureau.

State Reps. David Craig and Adam Jarchow, are looking for co-sponsors for their proposal to abolish the audit bureau and replace it with independent inspectors general who would be placed in state agencies … an email the two representatives sent to fellow lawmakers; "Unfortunately, the statutory process under which the LAB operates focuses more on retrospective examination rather than proactive fiscal action and bad practice deterrence. In many instances, by the time an audit has occurred the political will (or new legislative composition) necessary to change a state program has diminished." In recent years, the audit bureau has uncovered numerous problems with the state's flagship job creation agency, which is chaired by Gov. Scott Walker. 

So why not give politicians complete control over the messaging, the audits…or concealment of the data? I'll bet there won't be a peep from the conservative peanut gallery we know as low information voters:

"Why would legislators want to do away with the Legislative Audit Bureau?" said state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, the Democratic caucus vice chair. "Could it be they don't want to know what's happening?" Vinehout said the bill would put audits under the direction of the leaders in the GOP-controlled Legislature, as opposed to the current system of having the LAB overseen by a bipartisan legislative committee. "The breadth of their ignorance of the LAB is staggering," Vinehout said. "It shows a complete unfamiliarity with the skills of the auditors, the efficiencies in government that the LAB helped create, with the fraud, waste and abuse that the auditors have discovered, and further prevented through their oversight."

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha called the proposal one of the worst ideas in a legislative session fraught with bad ideas. “Changing the nonpartisan, award-winning Legislative Audit Bureau into partisan appointees continues the Republican efforts to reduce oversight of state government," he said.

This letter to the editor says it all:

I cannot but express my utter embarrassment to be a registered Republican. Already a rarity in Madison and Dane County, I would hope Republicans would value my vote enough to be mindful that I vote based on rationality and that eliminating a government post in retribution for its doing a good job is one of the most counter-intuitive proposals I have read in years. Politics play a role but when a quality organization such as the LAB is subject to petty attempts at retribution for pointing out the obvious failures of one of the governor’s pet projects, the politics have gone too far.

Esquire columnist Charles Pierce wrote this wonderfully insightful piece: 

First, they went after the state's Government Accountability Board, the eight-year old watchdog agency that, among other things, allowed the citizens to attempt to recall Walker and some of his more conspicuous lapdogs. And now, because it is doing what it is chartered to do, and is investigating whether or not Walker's campaigns illegally coordinated with "outside" groups in his past few campaigns, the pet legislature is proposing to "restructure" it. Keep that phrase in mind.

Then, in the wake of Walker's having been fired from his own economic development corporation, the pack of poodles descended on something called the Legislative Audit Bureau, which was central to demonstrating what a waste of cheap cronyism said agency was. This is especially egregious in this case because Scott Walker never has held a political office that he has not so deformed by his political ambitions that people actually went to jail over it. This is a singularly corrupt man, even by the standards of the our new era of decriminalized influence peddling. He never has run a campaign in his life that wasn't shot through with penny-ante grifting. There is no reason to believe this one is any different.