Oregon Secretary of State Audits Division Continues to Deliver for Taxpayers.

House Republicans cut funding to the one government agency charged with weeding out waste in government.

The Oregonian reported yesterday that the Secretary of State's audit division once again did its job as the agency that finds and roots out wasteful government spending.

From the article:

"A state agency that finances court-appointed lawyers for indigent criminal defendants spends up to $2.4 million a year representing people who are not financially eligible for the state assistance, Secretary of State Bill Bradbury's office said in an audit released Wednesday."

We've seen under the Bush administration that Republican claims that they are the party of "small government" is a sham. With record federal government deficits and spending and complete mismanagement of the government's essential functions, such as disaster response and relief, we now know that they are not just for massive government - they are for massive and incompetent government.

The Oregon House Republicans have shown that they are no different. During the 2005 session, the House Republicans pushed through SB 5602, which CUT over $750,000 in funding for the Secretary of State's audits division - the one agency charged with identifying wasteful government spending. The bill specifically cut three full time auditors! SB 5602 passed the House on a virtual party line vote, with all Republicans but one voting for it, and all Democrats but one voting against it.

Just as the Bush administration has put cronyism and partisan politics over the interests of citizens, the House Republicans chose to carryout a political vendetta against the Secretary of State by slashing his auditing budget. They continue to choose pettiness and partisanship over responsible and accountable government.

This is another example of the clear choice Oregonians will have this fall. The Oregon House Democrats want to make state government accountable to taxpayers for a change, not the special interests.

The Oregon House Democrats plan to eliminate wasteful government spending:

-Restore cuts made by House Republicans to the Secretary of State's Audits Division and support aggressive audits of government agencies to weed out wasteful spending.
-Aggressively close tax give-a-way loopholes that send our tax dollars to out of state corporations and companies who move jobs overseas.
-Provide incentives to government agencies to save money and give the savings to our schools.
-Save approximately $100 million by creating a statewide teacher health insurance pool and put the savings into the classroom.