Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party

GOP auditor candidate still unclear on which office she's running for, making promises she's can't keep

ST. PAUL (June 16, 2010) - Republican state auditor candidate Pat Anderson has spent the last month on a state-wide tour telling media and voters that, if elected, she will work to redesign government and solve Minnesota's budget deficit. There's just one problem: the state auditor does not have the authority to do either of those things.

"Pat Anderson is traveling around the state making promises she can't keep," said DFL spokesperson Kristin Sosanie. "Pat Anderson is either misleading people or she is confused about what the job of state auditor really is - either way it doesn't bode well for Minnesota. Perhaps she thinks she's still running for governor?"

The state auditor has no power to redesign government and no direct impact on the state deficit - those are the jobs of the governor and the legislature. The task of the state auditor is to ensure accountability and transparency in Minnesota's 4,300+ local governments - that means cities, counties, towns and school districts.

"You'd think in her four years in the office, she would have learned the job's basics," Sosanie said. "But then, we already knew Pat Anderson had trouble paying attention to details, she has an eight-year pattern of financial errors that prove that point."

In her travels, Anderson has also told editors that, if elected, she would work to improve the relationships between state and local government. But Anderson herself was responsible for the breakdown in that trust.

"People won't be fooled by Pat Anderson's newly-minted alternate reality - it's a matter of public record," Sosanie said. "The cuts that have hurt greater Minnesota and driven up city property taxes by a whopping 102% can all be laid squarely at her feet."

Pat Anderson first recommended cutting Local Government Aid, and labeled things like libraries, parks, and community health services as "non-essential services" so that they could be cut.

"The fact is that Pat Anderson created the relationship problem that she's now pledging to fix," Sosanie finished. "She is entitled to her own opinions, but not her own facts."

Background

Pat Anderson said she'll work to redesign government and address the state deficit. "We have to redesign government,' Anderson said. ‘We have to rethink what we should be doing and who should be doing what, because we just can't continue on this path.' The state auditor is constitutionally charged with overseeing spending by local governments and has no authority to make the broad changes Anderson believes are necessary. But if she's elected, she said she intends to use her position as a bully pulpit to try to push the legislature to make those changes." [Pipestone Star, 6/10/10]

• The State Auditor does not have the power to do either of those things. "The Office of the State Auditor is a constitutional office that is charged with overseeing more than $20 billion spent annually by local governments in Minnesota. The Office of the State Auditor does this by performing audits of local government financial statements and by reviewing documents, data, reports and complaints reported to the Office. The financial information collected from local governments is analyzed and serves as the basis of statutory reports issued by the Office of the State Auditor." [Office of State Auditor, accessed 6/15/10]

Pat Anderson's record is riddled with financial errors.

• "Two of the four republican candidates for State Auditor have made financial errors on their 2009 campaign finance reports. Candidates Pat Anderson and Randy Gilbert have filed reports that don't add up." [Pioneer Press, 2/4/10]
• "State Auditor varies from Dept of Ed by $87.5 million. Auditor report on Minnesota schools differs on student count as well; Uses the wrong inflation period; some schools counted twice, others not at all. State Auditor Patricia Anderson's widely publicized report on Minnesota schools, released last June, varies from figures published by the Minnesota Department of Education and has problems in its analysis." [ECM, 9/20/06]

Pat Anderson said she'll work to rebuild relationships that she broke in the first place. "Another issue Anderson sees is that the relationship between local governments and the State are at an all-time low, mostly due to cuts in local government aid." [News Enterprise, 5/28/10]

• Anderson first proposed cutting LGA. "Minnesota Auditor Pat Awada said on Monday that the state could erase nearly 12 percent of its $4.2 billion deficit in fiscal years 2004-05 with a targeted cut of 43 percent in state aid to cities." [Pioneer Press, 2/11/03]

• Anderson labeled things like libraries, parks, and community health services as "non-essential services" so that they could be cut. "In her prior term, her advice on "essential services" eligible for LGA didn't sit well with rural communities. She declared libraries a ‘non-essential' local government service." [Bemidji Pioneer, 5/30/10]

• Cuts to LGA have driven up property taxes by 102%. "As federal and state governments have reduced the amount of aid to cities, the result has been a greater reliance on revenues derived from property taxes...Between 1999 and 2008, actual revenues derived from property taxes grew 102 percent, compared to 10 percent for revenues derived from intergovernmental sources." [Minnesota City Report, 2008 Revenues, Expenditures and Debt, accessed 6/15/10]