Mary Taylor Audited for Hypocrisy, Recklessness

The stakes are too high as Ohio navigates the perilous waters of the current recession.  That’s why state of Ohio Auditor Mary Taylor should have known better than to call the state “unauditable” last week.

The basis for her stretcher (that’s what we used to call lies in Southern Ohio) was the fact that an important end of fiscal year report was past due.  As the Auditor of State, her office has been kept abreast of the issues the state has had in transitioning to its new accounting system known as OAKS.  As the Auditor, she’s been treated professionally and her staff always have had a seat at the table.  In fact, the state auditor’s office was probably better prepared for the OAKS transition than some state agencies.

That’s why she should have known better than to nitpick an administrative hassle and turn it into a potentially financially harmful circumstance for her state. The state of Ohio is not unauditable.

What’s at the root of the current economic crisis?  The financial markets – they’re not working properly.  Every aspect of the financial markets are gummed up and there is a dearth of something even more important than money in these markets: trust.  Mary Taylor’s outrageous pronouncement that the state is “unauditable” was an overreach and could have harmed Ohio’s credit rating.

As a politician, Mary Taylor is living up to that which so many of us have grown sick and tired – grandstanding for purely political gain.  Today, the Ohio Democratic Party brought my attention to something I missed over the weekend.  Mary Taylor’s own end of year reporting was late as well.  I don’t remember her chastising herself on this point last week.

From the ODP:

COLUMBUS – Just days after State Auditor Mary Taylor stood before the entire Statehouse press corps to accuse Governor Strickland of delaying the state audit, it was revealed that the audit of Taylor’s own office was months late, raising questions about the sincerity of her accusations.

As reported by the Columbus Dispatch (“Audit of Taylor’s office also late,” 3/7/09), under Ohio law, the audit of Taylor’s office had to be completed by October 15.  It was not finished until December 8, nearly two months late.

While the Strickland administration acknowledged the delay in both cases is due to the complicated transition to the Taft-initiated Ohio Administrative Knowledge System, Taylor continues to use exaggerated partisan rhetoric even as she begins to backtrack.  Now Taylor admits she “knew there would be delays” months before last week’s press conference.

Let me just back one thing up contained in the paragraphs above from ODP.  In May of 2008, Taylor was informed that the end of year report she was expecting would be late, perhaps not ready until the Fall of 2009.  This was before the fiscal year was even up.  Again in August, Taylor was updated some weeks after the end of the fiscal year.  This time the news was better.  The report would be late, but she could expect it as early as March or by perhaps late Spring.

These are just two instances I have read about or heard about regarding communication between the Auditor’s office and the Strickland Administration.  I know there were more, a source tells me that the Auditor’s office is “copied on everything.”

Mary Taylor is getting ready to run for something.  This context for her reckless behavior as a public servant is not lost on anyone who follows events on Capitol Square.  Let’s hope that the public servants in the Capitol and the state office towers in Columbus can make up for her shameless act.