Legislature catches Bullock's billion dollar error

Legislature catches Bullock’s billion dollar error

By Sen Jennifer Fielder, R – Thompson Falls

July 12, 2015

Earlier this year your State Legislature made several attempts to implement transparency and accountability measures that would put greater controls on State spending. One of our major goals was to allow Montanans and their elected representatives to keep a closer eye on where the money comes from, where it goes, what strings are attached, and allow citizens to weigh in BEFORE it is spent.

Our efforts to increase transparency and accountability in the State budget were met with surprising resistance from the democrat side of the aisle in synch with the executive branch headed by democrat Governor Steve Bullock. As a result, most of the Transparency Legislation was killed in the legislative process, and the little bit that did survive was ultimately vetoed by Governor Bullock.

The importance of checks and balances between branches of government became abundantly clear when a recent legislative audit of the executive branch uncovered 125 significant accounting errors in the budget administered by Governor Bullock.

Major errors revealing the Bullock Administration’s financial mismanagement included:

•Misstatement of Montana’s infrastructure liabilities by $1 billion.

•Misrepresentation of natural resource grants and contributions by $445 million.

•Incorrect accounting for hundreds of millions of dollars in expenses.

•Failure to report $62 million in bonds.

•Missed transfers of nearly $48 million.

Even the major Montana media that typically favors Bullock’s side of the political spectrum blasted the Governor and his administration for mismanaging Montanan’s hard earned tax dollars. Here is what they said:

Billings Gazette – “Take responsibility for terrible state budget”

“This wasn’t just a single accidental oversight. Instead, the problems are deep -- 125 errors and lack of internal controls. Sadly, those controls, had they been in place, according to the audit division, could have caught these problems earlier. In other words, there weren’t even controls in place to catch problems.”

“The State of Montana’s finances aren’t as rosy as we once imagined, and the same people [Governor Bullock’s budget staff] who may have contributed to the mess may be the ones ultimately charged with cleaning it up.”

“For his part, Gov. Steve Bullock called it “completely unacceptable.” Wouldn’t it make more sense to do a little deeper digging on how the problems happened? Granted, that is hard when folks like Villa [Governor Bullock’s Budget Director] are a part of the governor’s own administration. A deeper investigation might be politically uncomfortable [for the Governor and his staff].”

“The question remains: How members of his staff are being held responsible for such shoddy results?”

Montana Standard – “Audit of state administration disturbing, unacceptable”

“The audit conducted by Hunthausen’s staff [on behalf of the legislature] revealed some 125 errors in accounting for the state government’s finances. And while [Governor Bullock’s] state budget director Dan Villa characterized some of the errors as simple clerical issues, the overall picture should be disturbing to every Montana taxpayer.”

“Villa told the Associated Press, “It’s not misappropriating funds or hiding money.” We would respectfully point out that, given the nature of the errors in oversight, it is all but impossible to know if Villa is correct in that assertion.”

“Bottom line: The state’s finances are being accounted for in an unbelievably slipshod manner.”

Rather than acknowledge the seriousness of the problem the Bullock administration initially downplayed the incompetence. Bullock’s budget director, Dan Villa, admitted that “three zeros had been left off the figures.” But he generally brushed off the 125 errors as a “fluke” and “simple.” After nearly a week of silence, Bullock finally acknowledged the debacle was “unacceptable”.

It is impossible to say how many million dollar errors and poor decisions could be prevented if we had a governor who would genuinely work with the people’s representatives in the legislature toward more open and accountable financial operations. Governor Bullock has often pontificated about transparency and financial responsibility, but his actions don’t compute.

If you would like details on the Transparency Legislation we attempted to pass and voting records of those who opposed it please email me at Sen.Jennifer.Fielder@mt.gov, write me at P.O. Box 2558 Thompson Falls, MT 59873, or call me at 406 210 5944. You can visit my website anytime at www.JenniferFielder.us.