State Auditor seeks funding for audits, interns and single-audit expertise; committee discusses shifting special-funded positions to general fund

State Auditor Josh Galley and his staff outlined budget requests for the State Auditor’s Office and answered questions from the Government Operations section of the House Appropriations Committee about staffing, billable audit activity and options for moving some positions from special fund authority to general fund.

Galley and James Carroll, the office chief financial officer, told the committee the auditor’s office received several new FTEs in the last session, but many special-funded positions remain unfilled as private audit firms have rebuilt capacity. Carroll said four FTEs were approved last session: one general-funded training-and-education coordinator and three special-funded audit positions. The auditor asked the committee to consider converting three special-funded positions to general fund — two small-government review positions and one quality-assurance position focused on federal single-audit standards — to increase flexibility in serving local governments and state programs.

“Right now we have 21 FTE in the special fund. We would propose removing five of those to give flexibility,” Carroll said; auditor staff later clarified that removing five would reduce the special-fund head count to about 16. The office proposed keeping a small reserve in the special fund (staff cited roughly $350,000 cash on hand) because operating costs for the special-funded…