End of Year Interview: State Auditor Suzanne Crouch
Indy Politics begins a series of end of year interviews with statewide elected officials. In our first installment we speak with State Auditor Suzanne Crouch who was appointed to the office but won her first full term in the last election.
(Join Us For Twas the Night Before Session)
We talk with Crouch about her efforts to make the office more transparent as well as paperless. We also talk about how the office has functioned over the last year with several different individuals at the helm.
The conversation runs approximately 13 minutes.
Leon-Tailored Audio: State Auditor Suzanne Crouch.
My name is Suzanne Crouch and I currently serving as Indiana State Auditor and running for a full term this November.
When Governor Pence asked me to serve as State Auditor in January of this year, he said it was because I had the fiscal, executive and legislative leadership at both the local and state level to serve. I have served as County Auditor, County Commissioner and State Representative from Evansville, IN. As a State Representative I served as Vice-Chair of the House Ways & Means Committee. As Vice-Chair, I gained valuable experience in budgeting by helping to craft Indiana’s $30 billion budget, which is structurally balanced, has healthy reserves and did not raise taxes on Hoosier families.
The Auditor is the Chief Financial Officer of the state of Indiana. I pay the state employees, pay the bills, account for the funds of the $30B budget, and disburse $13B in tax distributions to local government
As Auditor, I also serve on a number of important boards such as the State Board of Finance, State Board of Depository, Indiana Public Retirement System Board, and the Deferred Compensation Board
Perhaps most important responsibility of the Auditor is preparing Indiana’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. The bond rating agencies closely monitors this report and Indiana is one of 11 states that have a AAA credit rating by all three independent credit rating agencies. The Auditor’s office has also received a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the past 21 consecutive years.
I will continue to be guided by my personal belief that the trust a taxpayer grants an elected official is a sacred trust and that every dollar spent should be done so with serious respect and consideration for the individuals who earned those dollars. Because every tax dollar that comes to government has a face and a name attached to it.
The best way to ensure that those tax dollars are spent with respect and consideration is to make government more transparent. I have been a long-time advocate of increased transparency in government.
As County Auditor, I was secretary to the County Commissioners and County Council. I put the minutes of those meetings on-line so that taxpayers could research what their government was doing from the comfort of their own homes.
As County Commissioner, we started televising the County Commissioner meetings on Public Television so that taxpayers could connect with their government in real-time.
In 2011, as a State Representative, I worked to help pass the bill that created Indiana’s Transparency Portal for all of state government. This website details the state’s expenditures and fund balances and the Auditor’s Office is charged with maintaining the portal. Indiana’s Transparency Portal was recently ranked #1 among the 50 states (US Public Interest Research Group) for allowing the public to view the information in a user-friendly, comprehensive manner.
My office will continue to increase government transparency by constantly adding to and improving our transparency portal. These improvements will allow the public more access to their state government’s spending. We recently posted Indiana’s $13B in fixed assets on our Transparency Portal. Hoosiers deserve to know how their tax dollars are being spent.
I believe that my office is key in the effort to keep accountability and transparency as a top priority of state government. Government should be 100% accountable to the people. I will continue to be guided by the knowledge that Hoosiers work hard and keep their noses to the grindstone. They expect their government leaders to do the same and spend their tax dollars wisely.
