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CASAGRANDE: DEPUTIZE PRIVATE ACCOUNTANTS TO HELP DELIVER EVEN MORE SAVINGS FOR TAXPAYERS

CASAGRANDE BILL WOULD PROVIDE WORK FOR PRIVATE ACCOUNTANTS,

CURB GOVERNMENT WASTE AND GENERATE SAVINGS FOR TAXPAYERS

 

            The State Comptroller’s recent report that state government wastes millions of dollars on uniforms for state workers who don’t wear them, is another outrage that proves the capacity for waste in New Jersey government is endless, said Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande, the sponsor of a measure that would pay private accountants to audit wasteful government spending – at no cost to taxpayers.

            “This bogus clothing stipend is one of many outrageous examples of waste hidden deep within New Jersey’s many layers of government,” Casagrande, R-Monmouth and Mercer, said. “Matt Boxer and his office consistently do an excellent job unearthing these abuses, but New Jersey governments’ capacity for waste is bottomless and we could always use more diggers.”

            Casagrande sponsors, A-1828, which would allow the State Comptroller to hire private certified accountants on a contingency basis. Their pay would be a percentage of the savings they uncover and deliver for taxpayers.

            “We often talk about running government like a private business, so let’s see what happens when we deputize private accountants,” Casagrande said. “This will help the State Comptroller conduct more investigations with greater impact. It will also create jobs for enterprising accountants in a way that saves money, unlike some recent proposals that would cost taxpayers hundreds of millions without guarantee of one new job.

 

            “Governor Christie will make sure Governor Corzine’s clothing allowance is hung out to dry in the next public employee contract, but this example proves that special interests and a complicit government will sink to any depth, so let’s even the score with vigilante accountants working for taxpayers against waste,” Casagrande added.

 

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Posted: April 15th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Caroline Casagrande, Press Release | Tags: , | 3 Comments »

3 Comments on “CASAGRANDE: DEPUTIZE PRIVATE ACCOUNTANTS TO HELP DELIVER EVEN MORE SAVINGS FOR TAXPAYERS”

  1. AP Plaza said at 11:45 am on April 16th, 2011:

    Stupid idea.. we have seen that privatizing government often ends up costing more in overbilling and overcharging, not to mention the fact that there will be insufficient supervision to ensure the audits were proper– look at the Brookdale fiasco.
    Justifying privatizing this critical governmental function by using clothing allowances shows that this is not a legitimate proposal. Is this what the Lt. Gov’s commission is spending its time on? How about eliminating lifetime benefits for elected officials? Now, that would really make a dent in the deficit. When will Caroline be proposing that bill?

  2. Gene Baldassari said at 11:37 am on April 17th, 2011:

    There are many businesses that successfully use this technique to find hidden cuts. Some companies even pay their employees for suggestions that result in savings or other cuts.

    Unfortunately, I do not think that it can work for government, even though the Federal government uses this approach to find savings.

    Look at the Grace Commission in the 1980’s that uncovered a lot of great ideas to save money. Very few of these suggestions passed. In NJ, candidates come up with a lot of great ideas in each election but they never become law.

    The difference between the private company successes and the government failures is voter failure. Voters do not elect the type of legislature that will do the needed jobs. The legislature does things based on politics, not
    general welfare.

    Consequently, we do not need more bloated government offices. If anything, we should cut the size of NJ government in half by eliminating many of the functions that residents can do better for themselves.

    But don’t hold your breath. Government never shrinks. And overall cuts never happen.

  3. Agree said at 1:23 pm on April 18th, 2011:

    this will likely not happen/ be viable.. btw, did anyone hear on 101.5 radio today, the latest outrage many of us didn’t realize, that being the fact that prisoners are receiving DISABILITY checks from the state?.. but, take heart, the brilliant Trenton minds are supposedly “thinking” of stopping paying people to languish at our expense, at the “3 hots and a cot” correctional facilities??.. anyone know if all the states are this dumb, too?..if you really start digging, it is not hard at all to figure out why there’s just “never enough money” to go around!!! disgustiing!