ST. PAUL — State Rep. Jeff Howe, R-Rockville, issued the following statement regarding Friday's court ruling which dismissed State Auditor Rebecca Otto's lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of bipartisan law Howe authored to enactment in 2015 allowing counties to partner with CPA firms in conducting their annual audits.
“It is good to see the court uphold this law so counties can continue to have flexibility in the audit process,” said Howe, vice chairman of the House State Government Finance Committee. “This will allow for greater efficiency at the county level to save taxpayers, which is the very reason I authored this legislation. The ironic thing about this lawsuit filed by the auditor is that it burned up more than $220,000 in taxpayer money, not to mention the taxpayer dollars counties were forced to spend on top of that to defend themselves from the auditor’s egregious overreach.
“The bottom line is if counties can receive better, more cost-effective services from CPA professionals, they should be able to make that choice instead of being forced into the auditor’s monopoly. It is good to see the judge stand with taxpayers and county governments on this issue.”
In Friday's decision, District Court Judge Lezlie Ott 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, 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."
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