ST. PAUL, MN—Representative Sarah Anderson, R-Plymouth, Chair of the House State Government Finance Committee, issued the following statement regarding Friday's court ruling on State Auditor Rebecca Otto's frivolous lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a law passed with strong bipartisan support and signed by Governor Dayton allowing counties to partner with Certified Public Accounting firms to conduct their annual audits.
"I'm glad to see this law upheld as constitutional, and know it will mean meaningful savings for counties and property taxpayers throughout Minnesota," Anderson said. "Judge Marek's ruling makes clear: this issue is settled, the law is constitutional, and we can put the confusion and hassle caused by Rebecca Otto's unnecessary lawsuit behind us. Auditor Otto has wasted more than $220,000 in taxpayer money on this frivolous endeavor—I call on her to get back to doing her job, accept the court's ruling, and apologize to counties and taxpayers for so flagrantly wasting hard-earned tax dollars."
In Friday's decision, Judge Marek ruled that while auditing counties is a core function of the Office of the State Auditor (OSA), the new statute does not transfer the OSA's authority to audit counties, it merely modifies it in a constitutionally-permissible way. In the decision, Judge Marek stated "[G]iving counties the right to choose whether a CPA firm performs their audit does not transfer a core function away from the OSA, but merely modifies one of the OSA's existing duties."
A copy of the ruling can be found here.
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