State Auditor Hector Balderas
After facing what amounted to a funding cut of 14 percent earlier this year, state Auditor Hector Balderas’ office says it may not be able to do its job if it loses additional funds the Legislature voted to take in the recent special session.
The Legislature and governor reduced the general fund money appropriated to the auditor’s office by 14 percent earlier this year, telling the auditor to replace that money with other cash. Now, bills awaiting action from the governor would cut an additional 4 percent from the auditor’s budget and take $500,000 from the fund the state auditor is required to use to supplement its funding.
The loss of that $500,000 would amount to an 81 percent reduction in the so-called “audit fund” – the very fund the Legislature told the auditor earlier this year to use to make up for the 14 percent reduction in its general fund appropriation.
The sum of those budget reductions would plunge the Office of the State Auditor (OSA) — the agency charged with ensuring that state government isn’t plagued by fraud, waste and abuse — “into a budget crisis,” auditor spokeswoman Caroline Buerkle said.
“With only $117,000 (left) in the audit fund, the OSA would be in the precarious situation of potentially not being able to meet its constitutional and statutory obligations,” she said.
The audit fund comes from fees and costs collected from agencies audited by the office. With a staff of about 30, Buerkle said the office “struggles” each year to collect $400,000 for the audit fund — the amount mandated by the Legislature.
Historically, the Legislature has required that the auditor’s office use $200,000 from that fund to contribute to its annual budget of about $3 million. In reducing the general-fund appropriation to the auditor by 14 percent earlier this year, the Legislature and governor doubled that requirement to $400,000 to make up for the reduction in general-fund cash.
Richardson has until Nov. 12 to sign or veto bills approved in the special session, or to line-item veto certain provisions.