Auditor

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The Auditor is a state level position in 48 states who supervises and has administrative rights over the accounting and financial functions of the state. Additionally, auditors act as watchdogs over other state agencies, performing internal government audits and investigating fraud allegations. Auditors may also be titled Comptrollers.

The state auditor belongs to either the Executive or the Legislative branch, depending on state. While both offices are similar in function, a legislative auditor functions primarily under the state legislature and is not considered a state executive office.

The auditor may be elected or appointed, depending on state. Terms of office range from four to ten years and may be indefinite, served at the pleasure of the appointing body. In instances where the auditor is an appointee, appointment is usually done through some form of nomination in a subcommittee of the legislature and a confirmatory vote before the General Assembly.

Some states assign the same portfolio to another state level financial officer, such as the Treasurer or the Comptroller.

There are a total of 23 legislative auditor offices and 33 state executive auditor offices. A total of 8 states have both auditor offices.

Quick facts about Auditors
Auditor is a partisan position in all 24 states where it is publicly elected. Appointed auditors serve as nonpartisan officials, with the exception of Connecticut, where Democrats and Republicans each have one nomination, resulting in two partisan auditors who share the office. In 2010 the annual salaries for state auditors ranged from $54,305 (Arkansas) to $198,000 (Texas).

Officeholders

Among appointed auditors, it is common for a dedicated legislative committee to nominate an auditor, who is then confirmed by a simple majority vote of both legislative chambers. Many appointed auditors serve at the pleasure of the legislature or of the specific committee charged with audits. In these states, an auditor may be removed with either a simple majority or a three-fifths vote at any time.

Appointed auditors serve as nonpartisan officials, with the exception of Connecticut, where Democrats and Republicans each have one nomination, resulting in two partisan auditors who share the office.

In each of the 24 states where the auditor is elected, it is a partisan position.

Elected auditors are overwhelmingly Constitutional offices, with 20 of 24 states providing for the office in the state's Constitution.

List of Current Legislative Auditors

Political position	Officer	Assumed office	Appointing Official or Body	Authority	Length of Term
Alabama Chief Examiner	Ronald L. Jones	October 1, 1982	Legislative Committee on Public Accounts	Statuatory	7 years
Alaska Legislative Auditor	Pat Davidson	1997	Joint Legislative Audit Committee	Statuatory	Indeterminate
Arkansas Legislative Auditor	Roger A. Norman		Legislative Joint Auditing Committee		Indeterminate
Auditor General of Arizona	Debra Davenport	1997	Joint Legislative Audit Committee	Statuatory	5 years
Colorado State Auditor	Dianne Ray	2011	Legislative Audit Committee	Constitutional	5 years
Connecticut Auditor of Public Accounts	Robert Ward, (R) and John C. Geragosian, (D)	2011	Connecticut General Assembly	Statuatory	4 years
Florida Auditor General	David Martin	2011	Joint Legislative Audit Committee	Constitutional	Indeterminate
Idaho Legislative Audits Division Manager	Don Berg
Kansas Legislative Post-Auditor	Scott Frank	2010	Legislative Post Audit Committee	Statuatory	Indeterminate
Louisiana Legislative Auditor	Daryl Purpera	2010	Louisiana State Legislature	Constitutional	Indeterminate
Maryland Legislative Auditor	Bruce Myers		Exec. Director of Legislative Services	Statutory	Serves at the pleasure of the legislature
Minnesota Legislative Auditor	James Nobles	1983	Legislative Audit Commission	Statutory	6 years
Montana Legislative Auditor	Tori Hunthausen	2008	Legislative Audit Committee	Constitutional	2 years
Nevada Legislative Auditor	Paul Townsend	2001	Director of Legislative Counsel Bureau and Legislative Commission	Statuatory	Indeterminate
New Hampshire Director of Audits	Richard Mahoney			Statutory
New Jersey State Auditor	Stephen Eells	2010	New Jersey General Assembly	Constitutional	5 years
Pennsylvania Executive Director of the Legislative Finance and Budget Committee	Philip Durgin		Joint Legislative Budget and Finance Committee	Statutory	Indeterminate
Rhode Island Auditor General	Dennis Hoyle	2010	Joint Legislative Services Committee	Statutory	Indeterminate
South Carolina Legislative Audit Council Director	George Schroeder	2011	Legislative Audit Council Board	Statutory	4 years
South Dakota Auditor General	Martin L. Guindon	2000	South Dakota Legislature		8 years
Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts	Walter Kucharski	1984	Virginia General Assembly	Constitutional
West Virginia Legislative Auditor	Stacy Sneed		Joint Committee on Government and Finance	Statutory	Serves at pleasure of the Joint Committee
Wisconsin State Auditor	Joe Chrisman	2011	Joint Committee on Legislative Organization	Statutory	Serves at pleasure of the Joint Committee

Elected vs. Appointed

While most states that do have the statewide governmental position authorize the governor to appoint an individual to the office, there are at least 24 others who have opted to have public voters select the office holders. These states include Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Two states - New York and Tennessee - do no have an official auditor. Audit functions in these states mostly fall to the state comptroller.

States

33 states have state executive auditor offices, 23 have legislative auditor offices and 8 have both.

States with legislative auditors include: Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • Colorado • Connecticut • Florida • Idaho • Kansas • Louisiana • Maryland • Minnesota • Montana • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Virginia • West Virginia • Wisconsin

States with state executive auditors include:

Alabama • Arkansas • California • Delaware • Georgia • Hawaii • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kentucky • Maine • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • New Mexico • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • South Carolina • South Dakota • Texas • Utah • Vermont • Washington • West Virginia • Wyoming - state auditor • Wyoming - audit director

States with both legislative and state executive auditors:

Alabama • Arkansas • Minnesota • Montana • Pennsylvania • South Carolina • South Dakota • West Virginia

Elections

2012

See also: State executive official elections, 2012

Eight states held auditor elections in the 2012 electoral cycle: Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia.

Going into the November 6 elections, Democrats held five of the seats up and Republicans held three. Democrats gained one seat in Vermont where Doug Hoffer (D) defeated Vince Illuzzi (R). Incumbent Thomas Salmon (R) did not seek re-election.

Recent news

This section displays the most recent stories in a google news search for the term Auditor + State + Office

All stories may not be relevant to this page due to the nature of the search engine.

Auditor News Feed

• Audit panel reviews findings with state auditors - Crossville Chronicle
• Audit of Oklahoma fire marshal's office reveals failure to inspect some ... - NewsOK.com
• Audit criticizes St. Tammany Parish coroner's office operations - NOLA.com
• State audit gives good marks to Missouri Office of Prosecution Services - Missourinet.com
• State Auditor Suzanne Bump: Massachusetts Department of Transitional ... - MassLive.com
• Auditor's office to convert accounting system - SalemNews.net
• State Supreme Court audit found deficiencies - Lincoln Journal Star
• Bryan seeks state auditor's office so he can close it - Anniston Star
• Auditor to investigate Secretary of State's spending on voter fraud - DesMoinesRegister.com
• Eliminating state auditor a bad idea - The Decatur Daily

See also

• State Auditor reports
• Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR)
• State executive official elections, 2012
• State executive official elections, 2014

External links

• National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers (NASACT)