State Auditor Christy Racinas told the Joint Appropriations Committee her office is the state’s accountant and payroll officer and described recent operational changes intended to improve transparency and reduce costs, including a renegotiated contract for the statewide electronic accounting system and a new employee time-clock system.

Racinas said the state’s accounting platform is subscription-based (SaaS), with the vendor responsible for hosting and upgrades. In renegotiations with the vendor CGI, the auditor said the office reduced costs, restored access to modules previously cut, and added a replacement time-clock system that now serves about 2,100 employees and produces annual savings of “several hundred thousand dollars.”

The auditor also noted the online checkbook known as YOOpen (described as launched July 2019) has had more than 6 million views and that the 2025 legislative session made the tool a statutory requirement, a step she framed as preserving baseline public transparency. She presented a budget snapshot that showed the auditor’s office at its lowest absolute budget since 2004 and described line-item adjustments to reflect actual spending patterns (for example, reallocating some supplies funding into postage and communications lines used to mail W-2s and other tax forms).

Committee members asked for detail about reductions to supplies and for history on several funds that are “parked” in the auditor’s budget (for Game and Fish license revenue recoupment and state-employee compensation line items). Racinas said those are statutorily required pots and agreed to provide a historical account of balances and reversions to assist the committee’s review.

No votes were taken during the presentation. The auditor concluded by offering to supply requested accounting histories and thanked the committee for its time.