Save Sonntag's audits

Gov. Chris Gregoire should veto the Legislature's cuts to the office of the state auditor. The auditor's work saves the taxpayers more than it costs them.

Audits are also central to making state government more efficient, which will pay dividends in the 2009-2011 budget period and beyond. Even in the short run it is self-defeating to cut it as much as the Legislature has.

The Legislature cut deepest — 73 percent — in money for performance audits. That is the program under which the auditor questioned $90 million in spending at the Port of Seattle. There has since been a focus on accountability at the Port that happened because of the audit.

Auditor Brian Sonntag says there can be no more big, expensive audits like that with a 73 percent cut.

The authority for performance audits was created by the people, through initiative. Legislators did not do it, and were never going to do it. Key legislators did not want to elevate Sonntag into a power that could affect their programs.

Under cover of recession, they have now erased the people's vote on Initiative 900 and hobbled the auditor's office.

In a time of tight budgets — and this will not be the last one — the auditor's work is needed more than ever. The governor knows this. In the budget she proposed, she limited the cut to performance audits to 20 percent.

That was reasonable. Three-quarters is not.