When the legislature and governor passed a performance-audit law this spring, it was specifically intended to preempt I-900, a more comprehensive initiative promoted by direct-democracy guru Tim Eyman. Eyman's longtime critics declared I-900 redundant and were gleefully writing his political obituary.
But in June, Eyman appeared in Olympia dressed as a 900-pound gorilla to turn in signatures qualifying I-900 for the November ballot.
Until now, the state auditor was authorized only to perform financial audits on government agencies—for example, to ensure that government employees don't walk out the door with public funds in their pockets. In contrast, broader performance audits empower the auditor to measure an agency's efficiency and effectiveness at achieving its goals. Many states have used performance audits to improve service while saving their taxpayers billions of dollars. Accountability advocates, most notably the Evergreen Freedom Foundation and talk radio host Mike Siegel, have been campaigning for performance audits for years. The legislature never made audits a top priority until this year, when the threat of Eyman's initiative goosed it into action.
But the version of audits that finally passed out of both houses was a pale shadow of I-900. The legislature's version authorized only a tenth of the funds that I-900 would, and I-900 grants more authority to the elected auditor. Most significantly, the legislature only authorized audits of state agencies, while I-900 also directs the auditor to review local government. This would allow independent oversight of troubled agencies such as the Seattle Monorail Project, Sound Transit, and the Seattle School District.
Ironically, I-900's most effective advocate could turn out to be the Democratic legislator who sponsored the bill that was meant to render I-900 moot, Rep. Mark Miloscia (Federal Way). Miloscia's been trying to pass performance-audit legislation since he joined the House in 1999.
Miloscia learned the importance of audits as an Air Force captain during the Reagan years, when he audited defense contractors and helped root out such abuses as $500 toilet seats. Miloscia, who voted against all of Eyman's other initiatives, now says he'll vote for I-900, believing that the two regimes will coexist and complement each other nicely. He's not aware of any legislators who are publicly opposing I-900. Governor Christine Gregoire still prefers the legislature's bill that she signed into law, mainly because it allows her to appoint most of the members of a panel that determines what gets audited.
There is no registered anti-900 campaign committee. The opposition statement in the voters' pamphlet was written by a collection of local officials whose strongest argument, "Local governments will have to spend scarce staff time and local taxpayer dollars to collect data for the audits," suggests that they'd simply prefer not to be audited, ever. The opposition is mostly interested in making ad hominem attacks on Eyman in order to end his career as an antitax crusader, but they've had difficulty coming up with sensible arguments against the initiative itself.
Stefan Sharkansky founded the local conservative politics blog www.soundpolitics.com.
