Suzanne Bump, State Auditor

she's pretty popular around here now due to her finding on the requirement on McKinney-Vento funding
Also, the work on the educational collaboratives
"it's all about integrity and public confidence"

"an implicit promise that your money--tapayer money--is going to be well-spent"
"How much did you spend, where did you spend it, how much did you get for it, and how can we do better next time"
operations of auditor's office reviewed by others, first
Medicaid spending is now 30% of state funds
looking at systems that may be broken: tax expenditures
for over a billion dollars of these, there is no measure of success: is there a public benefit?
caught attention of federal accountability office
"all of this work is intended to make government work better"
audit at end of August suggested some concerns around education collaboratives
problems at Merrimack were found elsewhere
Legislation on the table from Sen. Chang-Diaz and the Governor
public hearing this past week: includes most if not all of concerns, Leg plans to pass by early spring

Homelessness: fiscal implications of transporting and educating kids who are in state-sponsored emergency shelter outside their community of origin
Danvers has 8% of homeless family population (with 1% of the entire state population)
legal analysis was that this is an unfunded mandate
"a limit to what local communities can be asked to bear"
difficult decisions in very tight fiscal conditions
Auditor's office will be in touch: "help us figure out what costs if any you are incuring, so as to inform legislation"
contribution to improving transparency and integrity