Senator Mary Kiffmeyer (R-Big Lake), Chair of the Senate’s State Government Finance and Policy and Elections Committee, issued a statement reacting to Wednesday’s ruling from the Minnesota Supreme Court on the case between State Auditor Rebecca Otto and several Minnesota counties over the constitutionality of a provision within the 2015 State Government Finance bill allowing counties to contract with private CPA firms to conduct their county required audits.

Senator Kiffmeyer issued the following statement:

“The MN Supreme Court’s on Wednesday solidified an understanding between the MN Legislature and Minnesota counties that our 2015 law had given them the authority to contract with private CPA firms to conduct their required county audits. It is unfortunate that it has taken these many steps for the State Auditor to also come to this realization. Rather than accept the legislatures authority to make laws in our state and work proactively with our counties under these law State Auditor Rebecca Otto has chosen to waste valuable taxpayer dollars and engage in behavior that the Office of the Legislative Auditor has called “unprofessional.” I hope that with today’s ruling that we can bring about an end to this dilemma allowing the auditors of our counties to resume their duties of serving the people of Minnesota.”

In their unanimous ruling, the MN Supreme Court concluded that the Legislature’s 2015 law did not violate the separation of powers clause in the Minnesota Constitution, nor a clause requiring that bills at the Legislature deal with a single subject. When the bill was originally passed, it did so with the broad support of both Republican and Democrat members.

While pursuing her frivolous lawsuit, State Auditor Rebecca Otto wasted more than a quarter-million dollars in taxpayer funding, money that would have been better spent on pension auditing and other state priorities. Her action also forced officials from Becker, Ramsey, and Wright counties to expend over $1300,000 in local resources to build their legal defense.