Posted on 04/09/2018 10:35:04 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – An Oklahoma representative says that she has filed legislation this week that would increase the financial scrutiny given to the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority.
House Bill 2530 would require the state auditor and inspector to perform an audit of the Turnpike Authority at least once every two years.
“Taxpayers deserve to know where their hard-earned money is going,” Rep. Tess Teague said. “The Turnpike Authority has an annual budget of nearly $100 million, and lawmakers owe it to Oklahomans to track those dollars closely.”
The legislation dictates that the audit will take no more than 90 days. Results will be shared with the governor, speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives and the president pro-tempore of the State Senate and made publicly available.
“For too long agencies who derive significant revenues outside of the normal appropriations process, through funding mechanisms like user fees and drivers tolls, have avoided serious legislative scrutiny and oversight,” Teague said. “Given the budget challenges of recent years and the repeated attempts by political leaders to raise people’s taxes in this state, we need to take a much more serious look at how these agencies have been operating. It’s high time they come out of the shadows.”
However, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority says the bill is unnecessary.
In fact, agency leaders say the agency is already audited every single year.
Officials with the agency say they are audited every year by an independent auditor and the results are then turned over to the governor’s office and the auditor’s office each year.
An audit every TWO years for an agency that handles millions in cash is too often? How about every year?
“Officials with the agency say they are audited every year by an independent auditor and the results are then turned over to the governor’s office and the auditor’s office each year.”
Probably Author Anderson - so hopefully this bill passes.
Best way to get this into legislative oversight is probably going to be via a ballot initiative. I don't have much confidence that the legislature can get past the lobbyists much less a probable veto. I can't imagine a D or R Governor turning loose of this slush fund under sole control of the executive.
I agree with your comment questioning the every 2 year audit. Probably watering down the oversight to squeeze a few more votes for the bills.
The budget for the OTA is about 1/6 the TOTAL ODOT budget. It has been suspect for decades in Oklahoma. One has to wonder what they do with all that money given the poor repair of most of the toll roads I have been on. Same goes for the rest of the state that spends slightly more than average per capita for roads and clearly has far below average roadways.
https://okpolicy.org/resources/online-budget-guide/expenditures/how-oklahoma-spending-compares/
Oklahoma was once a good place to live. Not so much anymore. It is sorely mismanaged.
No problem, the authority will inexplicably tap Dannell Malloy as chief auditor, assisted by Bill deBlasio.
I find it interesting that new audit legislation is introduced and suddenly this agency has a pipe burst in their office.
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