AGO Opinion Topics: STATE AUDITOR

(1) The state accident fund, medical aid fund, reserve accident fund, state employees' retirement fund teachers' retirement pension reserve fund, volunteer firemen's relief and pension fund, and Washington state patrol retirement fund are not required by state constitution to be appropriated by the legislature prior to expenditure. (2)  The accident, reserve accident, and medical aid funds are subject to legislative appropriation by direction of the legislature. (3)  Moneys in the state employees' retirement, teachers' retirement pension reserve, volunteer firemen's relief and pension, and Washington state patrol funds, may be expended without legislative appropriation. (4)  The director of budget is authorized to provide information by which the budget will accurately reflect the amount of money appropriated by the legislature.

1.  The State Auditor's authority to audit the records of agencies, including the Legislature, implies authority to require that records be kept in sufficient detail to satisfy audit needs. 2.  The State Auditor has authority to require state agencies, including the Legislature, to maintain records of telephone numbers called from state-owned telephones, for audit purposes. 3.  If the State Auditor maintains files containing legislative telephone records, such records are exempt from public disclosure while the audit investigation is pending; thereafter, the records are generally not exempt from disclosure unless someone can make a showing that particular records fall within some recognized exception to the public disclosure laws. 4.  The State Auditor's authority to audit the Legislature, including the authority to prescribe the keeping of records for audit purposes, extends to the Legislature itself and to committees created by the Legislature (such as the Legislative Transportation Committee and the Legislative Evaluation and Accountability Program Committee), and to persons or agencies exercising legislative power (such as the State Actuary and the Redistricting Commission).

1.  The reference to the “most recently published regional power plan” in RCW 19.285.040(1)(a), which was enacted as part of Initiative Measure 937, refers to the Pacific Northwest Electric Power And Conservation Planning Council power plan in existence at the time the statute was enacted.
2. The term “methodologies” in RCW 19.285.040(1)(a) means a set of methods or procedures employed in the solution of a problem.
3. The phrase “conservation calculator” in WAC 194-37-070 refers not only to the calculator employed in the power plan in existence at the time RCW 19.285.040 was enacted, but also refers to calculators based on the most recently published power plan.
4. RCW 19.285.040(1)(b) requires a consumer-owned utility to review and update its achievable cost-effective conservation potential every two years, including any necessary update to biennial targets based on new information.

1. Persons over 70 are ineligible for state employment in positions which could qualify them as members of the retirement system.  2. Persons over 70 are not rendered ineligible for elective state office by the retirement act.  3. State Auditor should issue warrants in payment of salary of persons over 70 affected by this opinion to the end of May, 1953.

Where a claim against the state for old age assistance accrued during the previous biennium and a judgment for the amount of such claim was entered in the current biennium, such claim was merged with the judgment and effective as of the date of entry of the judgment.  The state auditor should issue a warrant for the amount of the judgment and costs.

The auditor is required, under RCW 7.32.060, 7.32.070 to issue a warrant to the order of the judgment creditor in garnishment when directed by the superior court to do so.

The state auditor has no authority to examine the financial affairs of the state association of county commissioners.