Iowaās governor, Republican Kim Reynolds, signed a new law on Thursday evening that will significantly restrict the ability of the state auditor ā Iowaās top watchdog ā to perform his duties. State Auditor Rob Sand (D) responded with a blistering statement describing the legislation as āthe worst pro-corruption bill in Iowa history.ā
āIt will allow insiders to play fast and loose with Iowansā tax dollars because those very same people will be able to deny the Auditorās Office access to the records necessary to expose them,ā said Sand. āAs Assistant Attorney General, I prosecuted criminal cases for seven years. This is akin to letting the defendant decide what evidence the judge and jury are allowed to see.ā
In the weeks before Reynolds signed the bill, Sand
barnstormed the state drumming up opposition to the bill. And, in an interview with TPM earlier this week, he described it as an assault on values āessential to our Constitutionā that would make Iowa āan outlier by farā in terms of transparency. Sand also warned it is part of a troubling undemocratic trend that can be seen nationwide.
āThis is a fundamentally American thing. Some people had this crazy idea a couple hundred years ago that we didnāt need a king or a queen telling us what to do and, in fact, that was too much power for one person,ā he added. āSo, we should have checks and balances and here they are removing them. That should be alarming to everybody.ā
Critics have cast the measure as an attempt to muzzle Sand, who is the only Democratic statewide elected official and
widely discussed as a potential future gubernatorial candidate. Sand has also conducted aggressive investigations of Reynoldsā office. However, rather than a partisan or personal matter, Sand sees the legislation as coming in conjunction with a broader assault on transparency and good governance as Iowa has shifted to the right in the Trump era.
The legislation, Senate File 478, would prevent the auditor from accessing any information that
could be deemed private. It also would strip the auditorās power to issue subpoenas to government entities that are being investigated. Instead of going through the courts, those claims would go through a board of arbitration composed of two members named by the offices where records were being sought and one member appointed by the governor.
āThe idea that, once an audit is underway, that the auditor is going to be denied access to records is fundamentally opposed to the very purpose of an audit,ā Sand said.
The legislation was approved by both chambers of the legislature in April. Sand said he suspects the governor was involved in ānegotiating the final version.ā Reynoldsā office did not respond to a request for comment about any role her team may have had in crafting the legislation or Sandās criticism of it. For his part, Sand believes there is a simple reason the current administration wants to limit his power to investigate them.
āThe genesis of this is, in my first term we uncovered more waste, fraud, and abuse than any other state auditor ever had, a record amount,ā said Sand. āThere are people who did not like that. And then, the other piece of it that makes it easy to get other members of the legislature to go along is, I happen to be a Democrat.ā
(full article online)
Inside the fight over āthe worst pro-corruption bill in Iowa history.ā
talkingpointsmemo.com
