LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Several House Republicans are joining the Auditor General in pushing back on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s recent proposal to reduce funding for the Office of the Auditor General (OAG).
What happened?
Earlier this week Michigan Auditor General Doug Ringler sent a letter to House and Senate leadership explaining that the 28% funding reduction would damage the OAG’s ability to fulfill audit requirements and could even put federal funding at risk.
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“We received no advance notice of the executive budget reductions and no direct feedback regarding the reason behind them,” Ringler wrote.
Michigan Republicans call for accountability.
Rep. Cam Cavitt (R-Cheboygan) called for the agency to be funded fully and expressed concerns for future funding cuts.
“This proposed budget cut should serve as a warning to all other state agencies: if you make the governor mad, she will weaponize your budget until you either submit or your phones get shut off because you couldn’t afford to pay the bill,” said Cavitt, R-Cheboygan. “The Auditor General must remain fully funded. Their important work verifies the integrity of state agencies and uncovers mismanagement at all levels. Just because that mismanagement occurred under the Whitmer administration doesn’t mean she should have the authority to slash their ability to operate.”
He also complained about where funding would be directed for the other proposals in the budget.
“The governor clearly doesn’t care about reducing state spending. She’s proposing $8 million in cuts to hide over $8 billion in waste by her own unemployment agency,” Cavitt said. “A billion dollars would go a long way in Northeast Michigan. It’s frustrating to see the governor try to protect departments who mismanage taxpayer dollars just to protect her own reputation.”
Rep. Ken Borton (R-Gaylord) also spoke out against the proposed cut from the Governor.
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“This proposed crippling of the OAG is a perfect example of the misguided leadership we’ve experienced under Gov. Whitmer,” said Borton, R-Gaylord. “Normal people in normal professions have to fix problems when auditors bring them to light. Clearly, the governor believes she’s above normal people. No working-class person can threaten to defund their company if they receive a bad performance review.”
Rep. Borton also called attention to the importance of Sunshine week that took place last week.
“Instead of correcting deep-rooted problems in her administration, the governor would rather slash and burn the agency reporting those problems into non-existence,” Borton said. “Sunshine Week is supposed to be a time to celebrate successes in government transparency. Instead, the OAG is being forced to inquire why their budget is being cut for simply doing their job. Unfortunately, the answer is most likely as simple as they got on the governor’s bad side.”
OAG contributions over the last several years revealed internal issues during the pandemic.
An audit from the OAG found that there was likely more than $245 million given out to unqualified candidates by the Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA), between January 2020 and October 2022.
According to the auditor general, there is still time to remedy the situation as the “three-year window for UIA to address fraudulent payments excludes cases of suspected identity theft, and therefore, UIA could still take action on these claims.”
Several legislators are calling for reform of the UIA after the audit results were released.