Knute’s Proposed Reforms to the Secretary of State’s Audit Division
The Secretary of State has the power and the responsibility to audit all state agencies and programs and look for ways to improve efficiency, performance, and value. The Secretary of State is beholden only to the citizens of Oregon and should ensure all agencies are efficient, programs meet benchmarks, and point out when counties, cities and public programs are in danger of insolvency.
As our Secretary of State, Knute Buehler will make the position a leader in getting more out of our tax dollars by helping to those who need it most. He will push to increase audits and make agencies accountable to taxpayers – freeing up funds for critical programs like schools, law enforcement, and families in need.
1. Require all major agencies to complete audits
Knute will make sure that all major state agencies are doing their statutorily mandated annual internal audits. He will also increase performance based auditing of state agencies so that Oregonians get the biggest bang for their tax dollars.
2. Use audits to assist the Legislature with budgeting
Completing an audit is only the first step. If it sits on a shelf, it doesn’t do any good. As Secretary of State, Knute will provide the Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee with meaningful performance based audit information to help them develop agency budgets.
3. Work with the Governor to implement outcome based budgeting
Senate Bill 676 (2012) changed the way Oregon is supposed to build a budget. The bill requires a new outcome based budgeting approach. Knute will work cooperatively with the Governor to facilitate the implementation of this approach and to ensure the Legislature has the audit information needed to successfully and prudently build a state budget.
4. Review, monitor and provide feedback on local government audits
The Secretary of State’s office is tasked with reviewing the annual audits that local governments must complete. Unfortunately, under Kate Brown, the office has let far too many audits sit on the shelf. City of Molalla, City of Oakridge, City of Creswell, LaPine Soil and Water District, and the Clackamas River Water District have all had problems over the past 18 months that were indicated in their audits. Yet the Secretary of State failed to sound the alarm.
Knute will protect taxpayers and ratepayers by making sure local government audits are reviewed and assistance is provided where appropriate.
5. Track the performance of the Governor’s health and education initiatives
Healthcare and education make up nearly 75 percent of the Oregon budget. It is imperative that new initiatives in those areas are tracked closely to make sure Oregonians are getting the best bang for their buck. As a physician, board member at St. Charles Medical Center and former board member at OSU Cascades, Knute is in a unique position to track these budgets because he understands and has experience in these areas.
6. Identify fiscal problems for Oregon’s future
While Kate Brown calls it “political” for the Secretary of State to address the need for PERS reform, Knute calls it irresponsible not to advocate for reform. PERS is the largest unfunded liability most governments face, and the Secretary of State absolutely as a responsibility as State Auditor to draw attention to the fiscal problems it presents.
As State Auditor, the Secretary of State is the one person in Oregon charged with reviewing all government audits. As such, the Secretary of State’s office must look for common problems and issues that arise in these audits.
Unfunded liabilities and pension costs go to the health of government. They hinder our ability to have good schools, to protect citizens, and to provide help for our most vulnerable citizens. The Secretary of State must look at them as part of auditing, acknowledge them, and when appropriate propose reforms in the areas most detrimental to the health of government. PERS is one of those areas.
I feel it is urgent to address audit concerns, and there are plenty of places where massive savings and improvement in outcomes are possible.
For example, at the end of his life, my father was in a foster home with a very bright operator, who told me a story of a client on a medication for 15 years. That medication had a package insert, with internet corroboration, saying that medication should only be used for 6 months, tops, as I recall. The client had balance problems and was grossly incapacitated.
The client told her doc about the carer’s research, and the doc dismissed it.
The carer said to the client, “I can’t refuse to give it to you, but you can refuse to take it.”
Between them, they tapered off and logged their efforts.
When the client was de-toxed, her ability to live on her own returned.
When I contemplate how many people in Oregon are probably in a situation of excess disability for such reasons, it hurts.
We can address these things. My guess is Oregon is now ahead of many other states, but we can do even better.
Also, some performance audits are done by the state, but the results are kept secret because of litigation fears. So data on nursing homes are available because nobody is afraid of their legal clout.
Post-surgical infection rates have been less available. Perhaps the state could be far more assertive in getting this kind of information out and available?
I am very distressed about the R party conventions. I have considered withdrawing from the R party.
I am a voluntarist, and despite the rhetoric of the L party, I don’t think they have that worked out very well. People from the D party say there is a libertarian caucus there, but all I can do is knit my brow about that.
So, I am still registered R, but I will not vote for Romney and more war and destruction of economic functionality.
I will be very careful where I put energy in campaigns, as I have been finding most labels to be unhelpful of late.
I expressed my concern about audits to John Payne, and he gave me your contact information. Thanks for your attention to my little rant.
Mary Saunders
also known as JadeQueen on OregonLive and some other venues
Hi, Mary; I personally have known care givers who worked in local nursing homes; one of them complained to the head Oregon regulating dept. of nursing homes,and told them of physical and other abuse of patients that was going on there. As a result, nothing was done,but the worker who spilled the beans, was fired.I also knew one caregiver, who worked in a nursing home, and has as many as 8 patients she had to care for, at a time, and could not do it. They expect caregivers to be supermen. She quit the job,and refused to work in a home again.
I researched this,and found that it was more practical for clients to stay in their homes,and have in-home-care given, and it saved the govt. a huge amt. of money, that would have gone into nursing homes.The trend towards home-care-givers, over putting people in nursing homes, will not only save the state money, it is much more comfortable for the client. It is one way that the state could really save money on health care.
Knute, does the SOS have the power/ ability to reform the Food Stamp/Oregon Trail program, and deeply audit it? In the Sherms market the other day, I asked the checker what percent of people that came through her line are on Food Stamps. She replied 90-95%. This is in Roseburg. Additionally, I have overheard many times people in the supermarkets here talking about their income to another person they are with, and I OFTEN hear things like “I traded “him” $50.00 worth of food for $20.00 worth of ‘smoke’, et al. These people done seem to care who hears them. I often see/hear people making calls to someone on their cell phone and asking what brand of a food item they want and “how much worth of food, again?” I FIRMLY believe the Oregon Trail food assistance program needs to have a serious clean-up. People are misusing their assistance, and I expect that goes on t/o government dole programs that taxpayers PAY FOR. What can YOU do to put a stop to that? Recently I heard that Oregon was “awarded” a large sum of money from the Obama Administration for having the most people (per capita?) on Food Stamps and that Oregon is pushing hard for people to be on Food Stamps (Oregon Trail). Apparently that is a source of Federal Income for Oregon?! That is disgusting. People don’t want to be dependent- they want to be free and have self-esteem, and the security of knowing they are capable of providing for themselves. There is certainly a large number of people who grossly abuse the system. What can YOU do about that?
In my opinion, the Obama Administration trying to get as many people on the Government Dole is akin to setting up communism/socialism at least in our state, if not t/o the entire United States. People dependent upon the dole for their basic needs is a people easily manipulated. What can the SOS do to stop that, and to make work more available for the average Oregonian?
I have heard in certain meetings that an entity HAS to spend ALL of their government budget-monies or they ‘lose’ these monies from future budgets. While I understand that a tighter budget leaves more room on the end of the budget for “new” spending, can ‘savings’ that you find in a budget REALLY help Oregon, considering the usual and normal practice of Government offices finding SOMETHING to spend the original budget monies on? Can you limit the time frame for repurchases in an an entity, for things like new computers for management, etc? We certainly DO need a SERIOUS government overhaul here in Oregon, and we also need legislature who will TALK to Oregonians about the daily workings of their government- say a weekly news update, telling an overview of what was done in government for the week- ie, engaging in serious accountability to the people who pay the taxes that the government agents work/play with.
hello, I live in Eugene Oregon, where the general joke goes: “why do hippies come to Eugene Oregon?” Answer: they heard there are no jobs there. (Unfortunately, it’s true. Since we lost the lumber trade and processing business, Oregon has lost jobs that support families, and is just as you said, completely antibusiness and anti-capitalism.) It is disgusting. I’m an Oregon native, and I had to work in another state for many years, just to make a living, because there’s never any industry or business in Oregon.all the graduates from the University of Oregon had to leave the state just to get jobs. In other words, all our smart brilliant and productive graduates,leave, and put all their industry into other states.
If you could do a lot to change many of the problems of the Oregon state government, I am definitely going to vote for you. I ran into your blog, only because I was researching WordPress, because I’m starting a humorous,and revealing blog on Oregon, and other interesting subjects.for example I wrote a “review of peace health Hospital Corporation” article, with an example of how a patient was shuffled around in the system, and completely untreated, even though that hospital sucked up all the Medicare and Medicaid medical fees. That is a particular characteristic of peace health Hospital Corporation; it does tend to suck up a huge amount of federal medical fees, while not doing much to cure the patients in its care.
I could definitely give you some feedback about some of the state and county departments, and their use of funds. In Eugene Oregon, and in Lane County, the misuse of funds by that government its mayor and its counselors, is really abusive. The local jail lets prisoners go, while claiming that there is not enough money to keep them in.
That is a con job by the Mayor of Eugene city, and the County leaders.they do HAVE a big pot of money stored away, that many of us know about,but they use taxes for private ventures, like the EMX bus line, completely impractical. The EMX bus line requires millions of dollars in maintenance that our County does not have. And yet the mayor and her counselors are going to push it through even if we taxpayers vote against it.it also requires imminent domain force to take away private property, without permission just to put the EMX bus line in. There is a lot of outcry and complaints against this project, however we taxpayers are getting completely ignored and repressed..
A lot of we taxpayers in Eugene and Lane County, would love you to audit the city and county funds and books.there is criminal misuse of funds going on there, and there has been for years. The mayor and the council often break the laws of the County, themselves, and never have any consequences.
You are correct that something definitely has to be done about the business and industrial situation in Oregon. This is a beautiful state, however it is being so abused and mistreated by our governments, it’s horrible. I would love to see capitalism, business, and industry being encouraged here, instead of so discouraged and penalized. I am really sick of Oregon being a welfare state. It needs to go back to work! That’s exactly what my parents would say, if they were alive. They loved Oregon, and they would hate to see it now. So Mr.Buehler, if you state that you are going to help Oregon get back to work, I certainly will vote for you,. and try to support you.
a couple of years ago, I got information that Mexican families from California, with members who could not even speak English, were getting a large amount of food stamps every month, in Lane Co.. One of them told me that. However, I was also informed by one of the local department, that people who are on disability or seniors, cannot receive food stamps. They are considered as making too much money.so I am very curious as to just exactly WHO is getting food stamps now? If people on disability are considered too rich to get any food stamps,how is it always figured that women of low incomes with lots of children are automatically put on a large amount of food stamps? Is it then decided by the state, that disabled people are worth less than people with large families?I would really like to find out all the laws and rules of the food stamp program and just how it’s being run now.