Posted on 02/25/2015 9:48:06 AM PST by george76
Things got very wonky indeed last month when Department of Finance and Administration Secretary Tom Clifford, Deputy State Treasurer Ricky Bejerano and State Auditor Tim Keller all tried to explain to the Legislative Finance Committee exactly how much money the state wasn’t sure it had.
The state, which requires all citizens to file tax returns and has the power to audit those returns to make sure they are correct, has not passed an audit of its own books since 2007. It holds taxpayers accountable for the accuracy of their returns, all the while spending more than $6 billion of their money every year with no real accountability for it.
No one is sure exactly how many taxpayer dollars the state has in its coffers, so they’ve been keeping an extra $100 million cash on hand — just in case.
...
How bad is it? We really don’t know, given the uncertainty and the factors leading to the auditor’s disclaimer opinion,” said Bill Bergman, director of research at Truth in Accounting. “But that, by itself, is pretty bad. Where you stand depends on where you sit, and New Mexicans don’t really know where their government sits, financially, today.”
The June 2014 Independent Auditors’ Report on the State’s finances from Clifton Larson Allen included the disclaimer “we were unable to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence for the opening fund balances and net position.” In other words, they had no idea how much money New Mexico had at the beginning of the fiscal year.
(Excerpt) Read more at watchdog.org ...
Every single government agency should have to submit a detail of all their expenditures every year. A sampling of 20% should be audited. Never tell which ones will be audited. And if they ever ask for a budget increase they should be required to submit the reason why their previous budget is not enough and where it went.
With the federal govt., all we need to know is that we are FLAT BROKE.
The only reason it isn't in the same category as , say Illinois is that it is a relatively poor state with not as much to steal---
New Mexico has a lot of politicians that got sent up the river. Manny Arrogant, Robert Vigil, for starts. Patricia Madrid also belongs in the pen as well, I suspect that she obstructed a lot of investigations.
I lived in New Mexico for only a year and a half, and that state demanded that I pay state income tax for the years before I lived in New Mexico. Susan Martinez has a big swamp to clean out.
—yeah—a Susan Martinez reminds me of trying to sweep back the tide-—
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