Article

Why independent audits belong in the budget

2026 · 03 Policy Accountability

If the state can spend $1 million without setting aside room to check the work, taxpayers are flying blind.

Raleigh likes to talk about accountability in November. This campaign wants it written into the appropriation itself.

When a spend clears $1 million, a small, automatic set-aside for an outside audit is not hostility to government — it is respect for the people paying the bill. It says: we are confident enough in this work to let someone who does not report to the spender look at it.

That is the spine of the Accountability & Government Spending Act. Read the full proposal, come to a Saturday fireside, and tell us where the draft is soft.