50% of a lawmakers' job is legislative audits

We have real problems when legislators start thinking legislative audits are a waste of money and have little value. The Enron executives had the same problem. They got caught because they squandered "real" money, as opposed to legislators who manage only our tax dollars.

You've got to give lawmakers credit, though, they take half of their job seriously. If you are elected to be a lawmaker, then that's what you do — you make laws, and lots of them. The other half of their job is called "legislative oversight." Lawmaking is fun, but making sure they get carried out is not. It requires holding people accountable and responsible for carrying out the law. Maybe that is why some legislators interpret "oversight" to mean "overlook." That may be why they do not like legislative audits.

Each legislative session, legislators pass lots of laws, which create more regulations, require more regulators and add more pages to the policy manuals. Before you know it, you have a thriving economic development program for the state — big government! Then we wonder why bureaucracies are mired in elaborate procedures, live and die by the policy manual and forget the customers. The irony is that, at election time, the same lawmakers go back home and run on the need for less government, more local control and fewer taxes. We don't believe them, but we don't call them on it. We go along with the charade. We become part of the problem.

One of the most important responsibilities legislators have is that of "legislative oversight." Because government bureaucracies are monopolies, they do not have the luxury of competition found in the private sector. There is no incentive to change, or to give good customer service, if you are "the only show in town." We have to rely on legislators to make sure our government is responsive to our changing needs and is providing a return on our investment. Legislators are to government what a board of directors is to a corporation. In the private sector, board members are clear about the corporation's mission and oversee it to make sure investors are getting a return on their investment. Successful companies are those that adjust to the demands of a changing market, view audits as a management tool to ferret out any problems, and take corrective action, as necessary, to stay competitive. If they do not, they soon find themselves out of business. Legislators don't have that problem. They just raise taxes.