Committee introduces RS32169 to raise local government audit thresholds

The House Local Government Committee on Thursday introduced RS32169, a proposal from Representative Pickett to adjust audit thresholds for local governments to reflect inflation.

Representative Pickett told the committee, “You have before you RS32169,” and said the bill would "raise the threshold by $50,000" so that entities with expenditures from all sources that exceed $300,000 would meet the audit trigger. He described the intent as keeping audit thresholds “on parity with what the way they've been historically” so inflation does not cause entities to be newly subject to audits.

The measure would also let entities with annual budgets between $200,000 and $300,000 elect to undergo a biennial audit, and require an audit in any year a single-year budget exceeds the threshold. Pickett said other procedures and processes in existing law would remain unchanged and that the change applies solely to the numerical values in the statute.

Committee members asked for additional detail. Representative Alfieri asked when the thresholds were last revisited; Pickett said he could not answer on the spot and offered to provide that information at a future hearing. Representative Wheeler asked whether the bill should include a clause to automatically revisit the limits; Pickett said that was “certainly an idea we can consider.”

Representative Wheeler moved to introduce RS32169. The committee approved the motion by voice vote; no roll-call tally was recorded in the transcript. The committee did not take final action beyond introducing the request and indicated a full hearing will be scheduled.

The bill's sponsor and members said they expect to provide further detail at the hearing, including any fiscal or timing language changes.