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PRESS RELEASE
 April 1, 2003
Contact: Marsha Richards,
Communications Director Citizens pitch in to buy newspaper ad and send message to legislators OLYMPIA — A large, full-color newspaper ad that will appear in The Olympian tomorrow is the work of nearly one hundred talk radio listeners who pitched in to buy the space. The ad, which targets our lawmakers’ failure to adopt true performance audits, was the idea of a listener who called The Mike Siegel Show on Seattle’s KTTH 770 AM. Siegel teamed up with the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF) to design the ad and asked his audience to cover the cost of placement if they were concerned about government accountability. Donations poured in. The ad features a crafty fox and an alarmed chicken with the caption: "He’ll guard the chickens. Yeah, and legislators will audit themselves." Text below the caption continues, "Foxes shouldn’t guard henhouses. And state spenders shouldn’t audit their own spending. But they will if we let them." Targeted by the ad are the flurry of recent "performance audit" bills passed by legislators in response to an increasing demand from voters for accountability in state spending. The bills would bypass the state’s independently elected state auditor, putting control of audits in the hands of legislative committees or citizen boards appointed by state officials. None are the comprehensive performance audits advertised to voters and the media. Legislators also exempted themselves from the audits. Siegel, a long-time proponent of comprehensive performance audits, sees the ad as a way to get the attention of legislators, and even embarrass them if need be. "My vision for talk radio has always been to inspire citizens to get involved in holding their government accountable," Siegel said. "This state needs performance audits and Siegel’s Soldiers met the challenge to send that message loud and clear to legislators." More Information: When audits fall short
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1 Part Honesty; 2 Parts Arrogance At a March 23, 2005, House Appropriations hearing on a bill to gut the voter-approved I-601 spending limit, Rep. Jim McIntire (D) asked a supporter of I-601’s two-third supermajority requirement for the legislature to raise taxes the following question: "Can you name a time when we [legislators] have actually not just set it [supermajority requirement] aside by majority vote? I mean, this is in many respects a procedural motion that has no bearing. It’s a statutory constraint that cannot constrain any legislature that chooses as a majority to set it aside . . . have we ever used a supermajority [to raise taxes]?" - Rep. Jim McIntire (D - 46) Despite the arrogance of some state officials, Washington's constitution is clear: "All political power is inherent in the people..." |
