ST. PAUL – The Minnesota Supreme Court today sided with legislation Rep. Jeff Howe, R-Rockville, led to enactment allowing counties to contract with private accounting firms to conduct their required audits.
“It’s great that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of counties and taxpayers on this case,” Howe said. “State Auditor Rebecca Otto wasted hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in an effort to maintain her monopoly and control over counties and their taxpayers.”
Otto sued multiple Minnesota counties over the constitutionality of hiring private firms to perform audits instead of adhering to the default practice of having the auditor’s office do the work. The provision at the center of the case was one Howe authored that was enacted into law as part of the 2015 State Government Finance Bill, which received significant bipartisan support and was signed into law by Gov. Mark Dayton.
-30-